Liberal Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich officially launched his campaign for President yesterday. Surely everyone was waiting with baited breath for this announcement.
Though Kucinich has no chance of getting the Democratic nomination, unless all current and potential Democratic candidates spontaneously combust, his candidacy does matter.
Why? For the same reason the bloviations of the liberal-Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy matter.
Ted Kennedy is the master of saying outlandish things that only die-hard liberals are willing to believe. For instance, it was Kennedy who, in an interview with the Associated Press, said of the war with Iraq: "There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud." Kennedy then went on to say: "My belief is this money [being spent for Iraq] is being shuffled all around to these political leaders in all parts of the world, bribing them to send in troops." The AP also reported that "Kennedy also criticized the administration for failing to articulate a coherent policy in Iraq and said administration officials relied on 'distortion, misrepresentation, a selection of intelligence' to justify their case for war."
What makes Sen. Kennedy's outrageous statements so dangerous is not their content - no thinking American actually buys what he's selling - but their extremity. Such declarations make wild statements by other liberals seem rational. When Kennedy calls the events surrounding the war with Hussein's Iraq a "fraud," he makes the less distasteful charges against the Bush Administration sound plausible.
Kucinich's potency in this race is similar to, though not as great as, Kennedy's in Congress. He makes wild accusations, promotes extreme programs, supports many ideas foreign to the minds of most Americans, but he makes the liberalism of the other Democratic candidates sound tolerable, perhaps even desirable.
Here are some samples of Kucinich-speak (emphasis added):
Iraq Distortion
- "I am running for president of the United States to end the United States occupation of Iraq, and put an end to the lies that brought us into Iraq," Kucinich said. "To help make this country whole again in the world community, and to challenge those lies, which if left unchallenged, will cause this administration to lead this country towards another war." (CNN, "Kucinich Formally Launches White House Bid," September 13, 2003)
- He rallied opposition to the illegal and destabilizing Iraq war. . . . (Campaign Website, Dennis Kucinich: The Progressive Vision)
- "More attention needs to be paid to false and misleading statements that preceded the vote on the Iraq Resolution in this House. Two days before the vote, on October 8, 2002, speaking in Cincinnati, the President spoke of his determination to attack Iraq: 'Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - - the smoking gun - - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud'.
"This chilling, apocalyptic statement was not based on clear evidence of peril, but was in fact based on falsehoods, hidden from public view by the office of the Vice President.
"Did the Vice President's office knowingly conceal information its own representative obtained that Iraq was in fact not attempting to purchase nuclear materials from Niger? Was the White House in possession of this same information prior to the President giving his shocking declaration in Cincinnati?
"There is no question that the President's statements we now know were false and misleading influenced the debate in this House and the decision to go to war. It is imperative we have open, public hearings to wash this stain from our national reputation." (Campaign Website, Kucinich: Bush White House Manipulated Congress, July 9, 2003)
- Unfortunately, in the case of Iraq, our involvement in Iraq was based on lies. [...]
I'm saying that war was wrong from the beginning. We should get out of Iraq now, because we're standing there on a lie. . . .(Democratic presidential debate, September 9, 2003)
Socialism
- "I've introduced legislation in the Congress of the United States . . . H.R. 676, Medicare For All.
"Now, Medicare For All is a single payer, universal health care plan that will guarantee access to health care. It will guarantee a universal high standard of care and lower health care costs. Every person living in the United States and its territories would receive a health insurance card entitling them to the universal best quality of medical care. The plan would extend benefits under Medicare to cover all medically necessary health services. And it would also cover preventive health care, complementary and alternative medicine, dental health, mental health, vision care, and a prescription drug benefit.
"No insurance, no private insurance, would be permitted to exist that duplicates Medicare For All benefits. Other government health programs, such as Medicaid, would be subsumed under Medicare For All. The program would convert all privately owned health facilities like hospitals and clinics to non-profit status.
* * *
"[Funding] would be provided by the following sources. Number one, existing government spending. . . .
"The second place where the money would come from would be employers. We would phase in a tax on employers of 7.7 percent on all public and private employers that would yield $917 billion.
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"The real question that's facing this country is, is it adequate for one-third of our fellow citizens to be left without health insurance? Is it adequate for families to have to make cruel choices about whether or not some loved one will be able to get the care they need, and so they have to choose whether to break into the family savings, whether to liquidate retirement savings, whether to postpone a college education for one of their children. I mean people are making these kind of choices every day. Just as seniors today make really cruel choices about whether they can afford food or a prescription drug, clothing or a prescription drug. This is reality in American today." (Iowa Speech, August 14, 2003)
Hand U.S. Security and Sovereignty to Foreign Countries
- [Under a Kucinich administration] America will return to its role as the most admired-not hated-nation. The doctrine of "pre-emption" will be retired, as will an aggressive, unilateralist foreign policy that makes our homeland less secure, not more. Our security will be enhanced by working with other nations and the U.N. instead of acting like an Empire, arrogantly undermining international agreements such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions, the Small Arms Treaty, the International Criminal Court, and the Kyoto Climate Treaty. As President, Kucinich will work to implement two measures he sponsored in Congress: the Space Preservation Treaty, which bans space-based weapons, and a cabinet-level Department of Peace, to establish non-violence as an organizing principle in both domestic and international affairs. (Campaign Website, Dennis Kucinich: The Progressive Vision)
Cut Defense
- A Kucinich administration will cut bloated and unneeded weaponry from a military budget that now almost equals the military spending of all other countries combined. The Kucinich peace dividend will be invested in education, health care, environmental clean-up, urban infrastructure, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and other pressing domestic needs. (Campaign Website, Dennis Kucinich: The Progressive Vision)
- . . . I would move to cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent, which would in no way affect adversely our national defense, and put the money into child care. . . . I would move to create a Department of Peace which would seek to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society and would work with the nations of the world to make war itself archaic. (CNBC, Democratic presidential debate, September 25, 2003)
- And if you're not going to cut the military and you're talking about balancing the budget, then what are you going to do about social spending? Hello? (Democratic presidential debate, September 4, 2003)
Maldistribution?
- I think that's what is happening in this society is there is a maldistribution of the wealth.
And I'm disappointed that my fellow colleagues here haven't continued to make the connection between the rising deficit and the war in Iraq, because unless we commit ourselves to get out of Iraq, get the UN in and get the US out, we're going to see rising deficits. They're talking about spending hundreds of billions of dollars for this war. And if you look at the maldistribution of wealth, it's going to be accelerated by this war. Are we going to have tax cuts for the wealthy and then ask people later on to increase their taxes? Are we going to have the Pentagon budget go to $550 billion within eight years and ask the people to pay more taxes? I think we have to reorder our priorities. It begins with getting out of Iraq and putting money again into health care, into education, into job creation. (CNBC, Democratic presidential debate, September 25, 2003)
Reward Immigration Lawbreakers
- All immigrants ought to have the right to be able to gain amnesty, legalization, be protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act, just as all workers in this country ought to be protected that way. (Democratic presidential debate, October 9, 2003)
- [T]he Bush administration has waged an assault on immigrants' rights. Undocumented workers have been left in legal limbo, while local police forces have been pressured against their will to hunt down undocumented workers, jeopardizing their relationships with immigrant communities. Thousands of immigrants have been detained in secret, denied due process and deported. . . .
A Kucinich administration will honor this welcoming legacy by legalizing the status of hard-working, tax-paying undocumented workers in the U.S. (Campaign website, Kucinich on the Issues: Immigrants' Rights)
Delusions of Grandeur
- JUDY WOODRUFF: Congressman, no candidate likes to talk about the polls. At least most candidates don't. But you're very well aware that you're near the bottom of most of these polls. Does that have any bearing on your thinking here?
KUCINICH: Not at all. I think that when Americans find out that I'm the only candidate in the race who actually voted against the war in Iraq, the only candidate in the race who actually voted against the Patriot Act, and now I'm the only candidate who has a plan to get out of Iraq. We need to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out. We have to bring our troops home. And I think that issue alone will cause many Americans to flock to my campaign when they see there's a real alternative to this endless spending of the resource of this country and waste of lives which the Iraq debacle has become. (CNN, "Life From. . .," September 13, 2003)
A chief danger of Kucinich's candidacy is that by pulling the Democratic Party further and further to the Left, he pulls the country as a whole to the Left. No, Dennis Kucinich will never be President, but he will affect - negatively - the direction of the debate for the 2004 elections.
