Midge Miller: Thanks to Kucinich for candidacy, leadership and vision
Originally published in the Madison Capital Times
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Midge Miller: Thanks to Kucinich for candidacy, leadership and vision
By Midge Miller
February 17, 2004
An open letter to Democratic presidential primary candidate Dennis Kucinich:
This is a letter to thank you for all that you are doing in this election. Your message is both courageous and insightful.
I have watched the marvelous response that you have received from audiences and, through the months, have watched as other candidates have moved in your direction on many issues. Even President Bush is now trying to get the United Nations involved in Iraq although he doesn't understand, as you do, what it will take to make that work.
In spite of the enthusiastic response of many audiences, the media have managed to dismiss you, not by challenging you on the issues but by ignoring you and convincing people you don't have a chance. Of course, this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This has been disastrous for your campaign, but it is even more disastrous for the country.
Our country seems to have three primaries. You must pass the money primary, then you must pass the media primary, and only then does the public have a chance to hear your voice. It is a tragedy that our political system creates a dependence on money that makes it difficult for a candidate to get elected without being compromised. I am dismayed also that the media have the ability, and think they have the right, to distort our elections by picking whom we can take seriously.
Regardless of who wins this election, the ability of both money and the media to distort our electoral process is a problem that must be solved if our democracy is to thrive.
Many people are confused because it seems as though all candidates, even Bush, are for health care, jobs, education, etc. However, the debate formats make it difficult for people to understand that the details of one's position are what make it viable.
Most Democrats are talking against the Iraq war, now that the problems are apparent. You were against it at the time when your vote could make a difference. Your leadership in the Congress encouraged 125 of your colleagues to vote against the war.
It is not just a question of whether the United States should have gone to war with Iraq. You alone have made it clear that unless we pull back our resources and our dependence on the military, we will never have the money to meet the other needs of our society, and we will not be accepted with respect back into the family of nations.
This administration has opened up a whole new nuclear arms race without a whimper in the media and with little protest in the Congress. Under your leadership, 30 of your congressional colleagues joined you in suing the president in federal court to keep him from abrogating the ABM Treaty. Ignoring the subject of nuclear weapons does not make them any less deadly.
It is not enough for a candidate to talk about jobs. You have shown how the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization, and other administration and congressional changes have created the incentives to move jobs overseas.
Even your campaign literature has set a high standard. You give us speeches and videos in a form that we can keep, use and refer to. Whether we ever vote, you have educated us.
It is good that you will have some delegates to fight for your platform at the Democratic convention, and the more you have the better. Whether or not you become president, you have made a major contribution to our country's political dialogue. For this we are grateful.
It is important to remember that Barry Goldwater did not become president, but his conservative vision captured first the Republican Party and now the country. You are leading our movement in a direction that will be good for society, and will help us regain the affection and respect of the world.
We need to realize that the primaries are only one step in an ongoing political process. The goal is to have regime change at home. We must put our full energy in this, because there is so much at stake, not only in our country, but in the world.
Dennis, you have given us a vision of what kind of a country and what kind of a world we should be working for. Thanks to you, your supporters understand the issues, and will be in this struggle for the long haul.
Midge Miller of Madison is a former Wisconsin legislator who played a critical role in organizing the insurgent anti-war presidential campaign of former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy in 1968. She has been active in every presidential campaign since then.
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