Dennis Kucinich: He's a vegan - not a menace
This is an excellent editorial. Originally published in the Philadelphia Daily News
Posted on Thu, Oct. 16, 2003
Dennis Kucinich: He's a vegan - not a menace
By VANCE LEHMKUHL
JUST YOU wait, you naysayers. Now he's officially declared - and once Dennis Kucinich is president, things are gonna be very different around here.
The only vegan candidate in the race (and the only vegan in Congress), Dennis the "Peace Candidate" will, indeed, prevail!
As the inevitable hypocrisies of the other candidates are exposed, his meat-free wisdom will come clear. He'll turn our government around, abolishing the military/industrial complex and replacing it with organic take-out restaurants. He'll outlaw cruelty, slaughter - and Thanksgiving. He'll establish world peace, love and low cholesterol...
OK, but seriously:
Most people are curious about the hold this longshot candidate has over many of his fans. But I've never heard any of them talk like this, even the vegan ones.
Let's be frank: The man's odds of winning are slim to - let's just say slim.
But that's the beauty of having a vegan presidential candidate - he's already making history on the campaign trail.
If Rep. Kucinich makes no other mark on history, he will have managed to introduce the concept of veganism - avoiding all animal products - to millions who never heard of it.
But more than that, Kucinich's platform is livening up the Democratic race, providing a standard of idealism against which the pie-in-the-sky claims of other candidates can be measured. While his rivals struggle to reconcile their early support for the war in Iraq with their current criticism of it, Kucinich was against it from day one, and is the only legislator in the race who voted against it - hell, he protested it back in February 2002!
As part of his "cruelty-free" worldview, Kucinich proposes a U.S. "Department of Peace" to study how war can be eliminated.
And Kucinich comes out swinging on other issues, too: NAFTA? Dump it. Medical marijuana? Dispense it. Gay marriage? Go for it. Even if you disagree with him, it's clear what he stands for. Which - like 'em or not - tends to be the case with vegans.
There is one waffle in his closet: His ultra-nonviolence (and Catholicism) kept him thoroughly "pro-life" until recently.
Cynics may mock his 2002 conversion to the pro-choice side. In fairness though, abortion is probably the most complex and divisive issue around, and Kucinich's history suggests he's sincere. It's notable that those who tar him with "inconsistency" don't find the same in anti-abortion protesters who eat burgers.
And Kucinich does have some integrity in the bank. Raised in poverty as the son of a truck driver, he became the 31-year-old "boy mayor" of Cleveland and stood firm on a central campaign promise not to sell the city's power company - even though that seemed the only way to avoid municipal bankruptcy.
After the city fell into default, he was voted out. Fifteen years later, saving the utility gave him another shot at political office. Holding onto "Muni Light," it seems, wound up saving taxpayers $200 million by 1996.
Of course the guy's not perfect - and if he were, that would make him even more of a longshot, right? But Kucinich brings to this race what vegans ultimately bring to the table: A workable alternative - a counterpoint to the "this is how it's always been done" and its twin, the "since this is now done, it had to be done this way" crowds.
With American lives on the line half a world away, taking a hard look at honest-to-god alternatives is an urgent imperative. That's why a lot of us like Dennis.
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