Wake up, America: Dennis Kucinich has hit the big time!
From http://www.lesspress.com/voters-volunteers.htm
Wake up, America: Dennis Kucinich has hit the big time!
"Dennis is the most humble candidate I've ever met. Most politicians wear an aura of hubris because they've already been bought and paid for. Dennis will go to the White House as the best chance you've had since Abe Lincoln to see a man's true character as he dons the mantle of Leader of the Free World." - Michelle Shocked
The race for the Democratic nomination has reached a critical point. Less than a quarter of delegates have been assigned (see table showing the schedule of Democratic primaries), and of these the front-runner, Sen. John Kerry, has just over half. The mass media have been calling it a two-horse race between Kerry and Sen. John Edwards.
But wait! Who's that dark horse coming up on the outside? It's Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio!
Dennis took second place with 30% of the vote in the Hawaii primary on Feb.
24. 30% is the BIG TIME, folks. To put this result in context: aside from Kerry, the only candidates to get 30% or more in ANY state so far are Dean in Washington (30%); Clark in Oklahoma (30%); and Edwards in his home state of South Carolina (45%), Wisconsin (34%) and Oklahoma (30%).
Dennis's success comes as no surprise to those who have been following his upward progress: 5.6% in New Mexico, 8% in Washington, 16% in Maine... Already more than 100,000 people have voted for Dennis in the primaries and caucuses held to date. These people didn't vote for Dennis because they liked his name or because they accidentally marked the wrong box on the ballot. They did it because they want Dennis Kucinich to be President.
Do these 100,000 people know something that the rest of America is still waiting to hear? Who is Dennis Kucinich and what does he stand for?
Dennis led the opposition in Congress to both the Iraq war and the Patriot Act, and won the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award for his stand against the war. He promises to hand over control of Iraq to the UN within 90 days of taking office, to repeal the Patriot Act which has butchered civil liberties, to cut the bloated Pentagon budget by 15% to pay for free education and health care for all Americans, and cancel the GATT and NAFTA trade agreements which have wiped out millions of jobs... He takes no money from any corporate donor and most of the donations he receives come in chunks of under $100. He himself is one of the least wealthy candidates ever to run for president, with an estimated net worth of under $60,000. He has defeated Republican incumbents four times in his career (for city councilman, Mayor of Cleveland, state senator and Congress), and in his fourth term now holds 74% of the vote in a congressional district with a Republican majority. Not only can Dennis beat Bush, but he will fix the corrupt system dominated by corporate interests which put Bush into power.
Compare the other three candidates still in the race:
- Al Sharpton, who has never held elected office; - Sen. John Edwards of South Carolina, a right-wing Democrat and one-term senator, who voted for the Iraq war and the Patriot Act; - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, an elitist politician in the Al Gore mould, heavily backed by media and other special interests, who also voted for the Iraq war and the Patriot Act, who is a member of the same "Skull and Bones" secret society as Bush... Kerry, if nominated, would bring us a re-run of Gore v Bush, except this time without the advantage of incumbency.
The choice is clear, and there can be little doubt that Dennis Kucinich presents the greatest threat to Bush and his billionaire backers. But the companies that control the mass media don't want Americans to have that choice, and they have imposed a media blackout on his campaign. At times this reaches the point of absurdity. Associated Press reported the results of the Hawaii primary as follows: "Kerry first... Edwards third"! Meanwhile the CNN website gives Dennis just 26% in Hawaii, whereas the horse's mouth, the Hawaii Democratic Party [ed. note: they are now reporting 27%, and votes for Kucinich actually appear to have disappeared from their total, from an initial report of 1138 to 1112. WTF?] reports 30% (and this is expected to rise when results from the last few districts come in.) Dennis's message of peace and justice is anathema to the corporate-owned media. It comes down to this: If we want Dennis' message to reach the American people, we'll have to carry it ourselves by whatever means we can find.
Time is critical! Next Tuesday, March 2, is the biggest date in the Democratic primary calendar (see table). Ten states vote on the same day: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts (Kerry's home state), Minnesota, New York, Ohio (Dennis's home state), Rhode Island and Vermont: all told, more than a third of delegates to the Boston convention are up for grabs on a single day. March 2, 2004 will go down as a turning point in the history of American democracy. Let's turn towards peace and justice and choose the Presidential candidate who best represents those qualities: Dennis Kucinich.
Please forward this message (www.lesspress.com/voters-volunteers.htm) to everyone you know in these states and across the nation. And please visit Dennis's website, http://www.kucinich.us, to find out how you can help the campaign. People are more than just votes -- to save democracy in the US, we need your help, not just your vote. We need to maintain and build a nationwide network if Dennis Kucinich is to win, not just the primaries, but also the nomination at the Democratic convention in Boston in July, and ultimately win the Presidential election.
Take heart and good luck!
Robert Alcock, www.lesspress.com, February 25, 2004
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