Kucinich gives emotional appeal
Originally published in the Ames Tribune.
Kucinich gives emotional appeal
By: David Grebe, Staff Writer July 14, 2003
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich delivered an emotional appeal to nearly 100 local Democrats Sunday night as he called for an end to what he called a society based on fear.
That fear of the world, Kucinich said, is causing America to spend too much money trying to dominate the world militarily, is undermining civil liberties in the United States and is fomenting a policy of war.
"We need to break this spell of fear," Kucinich said. "We have to understand the moment we're at in this country."
Military adventures aren't making the American people safer, Kucinich said.
Kucinich is an ardent opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and said the United States must work with other nations to achieve security.
Part of that security, Kucinich, is achieving global nuclear disarmament. He promised to get the world's nuclear powers united in a "common effort to rid the world of this threat."
While anti-war sentiment is clearly a major factor in Kucinich' appeal, he also offered a progressive social agenda - one he said was tied to reducing military expenditures.
Kucinich is the lone Democrat who backs "Medicare for all," or a single-payer national health-care system. Health care costs now take up 14 percent of the U.S. economy, Kucinich said. "We're paying for universal health care and not getting it," Kucinich said.
Other Kucinich ideas include canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization, and creating a "Department of Peace."
One reason the latter is important, Kucinich said, is that the United States is engaged in more arms proliferation than any nation in the world.
"My candidacy represents the sharpest contrast with the present incumbent," Kucinich said.
Perhaps that was one reason Kucinich's message was largely welcomed by an audience much younger and diverse than most Democratic forays in Ames.
"Most of the Americans that I've talked to in Japan have talked about leaving because of the state of our country," said Terre Lundy, who just returned to Ames from Japan.
"We need to get out of other people's business," Lundy said.
"This makes sense," said Johann Golchin of Ames. "We're living in a global village now."
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