veiled4allah veiled4allah: responding to 'I love Kucinich, but...'

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responding to 'I love Kucinich, but...'

Date: January 10, 2004 | 17 Dhu-l-Qidah 1424 Hijriah
Blog: veiled4allah
Subjects: commentary, kucinich
I usually try to limit the amount of partisan political discussion that I post to veiled4allah. I know that I find it annoying sometimes when a person's blog seems to have been taken over by news about their favorite candidate and I don't want to cause annoyance to others that way. I have a separate blog devoted to Dennis Kucinich where I can post about him to my heart's content. If people are interested, they can visit that blog and if they're not they can skip it.

Still, I do post about Kucinich here if there's some larger commentary I want to make.

I've never been actively involved in a campaign before, so maybe this is actually a long-standing phenomenon. Nonetheless, I am simply baffled by the number of people who say "I like Kucinich but I don't think he can win, so I'm supporting Dean". You don't think he's got enough support so your answer is not to support him either? Hello? Where is the logic?

To me, this kind of attitude is not "pragmatism" but defeatism. Giving up before you've even tried. It's also conformism. Go along with everyone else.

Maybe people don't understand the primary process. There is no contradiction between voting for Kucinich in the primaries because you like what he says and voting for Dean in the general because you think he has a better chance of beating Bush. You can do both! They aren't mutually exclusive, people!

What makes this so frustrating is the number of people who say this. Believe me, if every person that I have personally heard this from and every person that other Kucinich supporters have heard this from would just vote for Kucinich, he would be a front-runner. That's how many people are saying this. Seriously.

In my earlier series of posts about bloc voting I tried to address this concern and present an argument why Muslims at least should vote for Kucinich anyway.

Along the same lines is "I love Kucinich, but...", a list of ten reasons to vote for Kucinich anyway.

Stop being a sheep and start standing up for what you believe in! If not you, who? If not now, when?
~ Posted by Al-Muhajabah, a member of the reality-based community, at 08:30 PM

Comments

Amadan said: Total comments: 7  

Subject: Re: responding to \

You make some good arguments for Kucinich (here and in your Muslims4Kucinich blog), though I think you vastly overestimate how many people would actually vote for him based on your own anecdotal evidence, and I also think you vastly underestimate how hard it will be to unseat a sitting President during "wartime" (and most Americans have been convinced that we are in an ongoing "War against Terror").
However, speaking as someone who likes Kucinich but genuinely prefers Dean to Kucinich based on platform (I have moved leftward over the past few years, but not as far left as Kucinich), I think the one factor you have not taken into account is that a bruising primary battle can weaken the candidate who eventually emerges when he does face off against Bush.
This is not to say that you shouldn't support the candidate you genuinely prefer, which means in your case doing your best to get Kucinich nominated. However, every negative thing any Democratic candidate says about Dean (or whoever wins) will come back to haunt the Democrats during the campaign. Lieberman has handed Karl Rove an awful lot of lovely soundbites for the Republicans to use against Dean. My perception is that Kucinich is trying not to do the same thing -- he challenges Dean on his positions but doesn't go for the throat with negative comments about Dean's fitness to be President.
However, sooner or later someone is going to win, at this point it is very likely to be Dean, and there comes a time where continuing to tilt against the likely nominee is counterproductive if Bush is the one you really want to beat. Every dollar Dean has to spend now against his Democrat rivals is a dollar he won't have when fighting Bush.
I'm not trying to talk you into giving up now wink, but just remember that it is not true that there is no "cost" in fighting the man who will eventually be nominated.





~ Posted at January 11, 2004 02:28 PM | Comment Permalink
moderator Al-Munaqabah said: Total comments: 996   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Subject: Re: responding to \\

Sorry, I don't buy the "let's hand it to Dean now so he can go up against Bush" argument. It is pure speculation that Dean would be strengthened if Kucinich withdrew. Kucinich is speaking up to say things that I believe need to be said and that Dean is not saying. There is no gain to me and a loss if I give up on Kucinich because everybody is telling me Dean is the one. I guess what it comes down to is that I see the political process in a different way than you do. I care too much about what Kucinich is saying to put some strategic theorizing above it.

And to be honest I'm tired of people telling me to give up, to not fight for what I believe in. If you think Dean is best, then support him with all your heart. This post isn't aimed at you. But if you don't think Dean is best, why should you give up and support someone you don't agree with?

~ Posted at January 11, 2004 02:44 PM | Comment Permalink
Brian Ulrich said: Total comments: 41   gold stargold stargold stargold star

Subject: Re: responding to \

I remember when everyone said Dean couldn't win, and a bunch of supporters got together and started campaigning for him anyway. That was all the way back in...2003.

You could also make the case that having Kucinich in the race helps Dean. CW says the Democrats can't win if they nominate someone who is "The Radical Liberal." Having Kucinich in the race attacking Dean from the left helps somewhat to insulate Dean from that charge.

~ Posted at January 11, 2004 03:04 PM | Comment Permalink
moderator Al-Munaqabah said: Total comments: 996   gold stargold stargold stargold stargold star

Subject: Re: responding to \\

Those are both good points. I am really baffled at this "Dean is a radical" meme.

I think we need to distinguish between challenging Dean from the left and challenging Dean from the right. It's the attacks on Dean from the right that can be used by Bush. C'mon, is Bush going to echo Kucinich in attacking Dean for not wanting to cut the Pentagon budget or for failing to support single-payer universal healthcare? I don't think so!!

~ Posted at January 11, 2004 03:13 PM | Comment Permalink
Brian Ulrich said: Total comments: 41   gold stargold stargold stargold star

Subject: Re: responding to \\\\

I think Dean's liberal reputation comes from the fact he is a Vermonter, as well as the fact he opposed the Iraq war and isn't afraid to take on Bush. On many issues, he is fairly moderate, although in some cases (health care, for example) it seems a moderation born of practicality.

~ Posted at January 11, 2004 03:58 PM | Comment Permalink

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