NOTE: Cong. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced the Space Preservation Act of 2002 (HR3616) banning space-based weapons into the U.S. House of Representatives. Alfred Webre, JD, MEd, Vancouver, BC
See: http://www.peaceinspace.com
Friday May 10 03:12 PM EDT
Deeper Rivers - A Kucinich candidacy would tread where
By David Corn LA Weekly Writer
SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, MANY POLITICIANS have prayed for
America, but only one offered a devotional accusing the
government of "in effect canceling" the first and fourth
amendments, warning that a "great fear" overwhelmed America's
leaders, and opposing "war without end."
When Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland
who is not a familiar face on Sunday news gab shows, offered such
a "prayer for America" in February at a Los Angeles meeting of the
Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, he became a
magnet for progressives suffering post9/11 blues and longing for a
kick-ass leader who would bash the Bush administration, the
national-security establishment and the recent expansion of federal
police powers, and who also could express a left vision promoting
peace, social justice, civil liberties and democracy.
Thousands of leftists across the country read Kucinich's words on
the Internet and sent him e-mails declaring, "Right on!" The
response to his speech prompted talk among liberals in L.A. and
elsewhere of an improbable Kucinich-for-president campaign. In
The Nation magazine, a starry-eyed Studs Terkel, the well-known
lefty oral historian, declared, "Kucinich Is the One."
That's some speech that can do all that. (And Kucinich began it by
singing portions of various patriotic anthems.) But with most
elected Democrats proclaiming their support for George W. Bush's
war on terrorism at home and abroad, the competition is slim these
days for a national progressive leader. For his part, Kucinich, 55,
has long been an independent voice willing to cut against political
fashion. The son of a truck driver and the oldest of seven children,
Kucinich was a child star of Cleveland politics. He was elected to
the City Council in 1969 at the age of 23, a populist eager to mix it
up with the city's business establishment. In 1977, as the boy
mayor of Cleveland, he waged a titanic struggle against the town's
financial elite. The money gang wanted him to sell off the municipal
utility to balance debt-ridden books he had inherited. Kucinich
refused, hoping to preserve low electricity rates. The banks called
in their loans, and the city went into default. Kucinich won voter
referendums on the issue and on raising income taxes to cover the
city deficit. But in the face of opposition from the local barons, he
was bounced from office in 1979.
Seventeen years later, he was elected to Congress, beating a
Republican incumbent/millionaire-businessman. As a backbencher
in the minority, Kucinich does not have much clout. But he has
become chairman of the Progressive Caucus, a collection of
several dozen House liberals. And he has established himself as
an iconoclastic and idealistic legislator who pushes issues few
others will touch. At the Web site he recently set up --
www.thespiritoffreedom.com -- Kucinich highlights three causes
he's been chasing: establishing a Department of Peace, outlawing
weapons based in space, and advocating nuclear disarmament. In
Congress, he recently offered an amendment to stop Bush's tax
cuts for the wealthiest one percent and apply that $187 billion to
prescription-drug benefits for seniors. When Homeland Security
czar Tom Ridge refused to testify before Congress but deigned to
appear at an informal closed-door session, Kucinich walked out of
the briefing in protest.
"I have a sense of urgency," says Kucinich. "This is a time when
world peace is at stake, when nuclear armament is occurring,
when domestic needs, such as health care, are being ignored . . . I
am trying to be a spokesperson. I have this sense of an
unarticulated consciousness that exists in this country and that
has been waiting for representation."
His unadulterated message has registered. Not only has he been
flooded by 20,000 or so e-mails, he's been receiving speaking
invitations from across the country. In late May, for instance, he
will be the keynote speaker at the Western conference meeting of
the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) in Seattle.
KUCINICH HAS TAKEN POSITIONS not widely shared by his
fellow elected Democrats. He is openly critical of the U.S. bombing
campaign in Afghanistan (news - web sites), saying the response
to the 9/11 attacks ought to have been more in line with a police
action than a war. The incursions of Ariel Sharon (news - web
sites), he adds, are bound to fail because they "will create more
violence against Israel." In one break with traditional liberals,
Kucinich is not pro-choice. He explains that he represents one of
the most Catholic districts in the country and was raised in a
Catholic setting: "I believe in the sanctity of life and that life begins
at conception." But, he adds, he has "never taken a position that
Roe v. Wade (news - web sites) should be overturned or that
people should be prosecuted for abortion." In a similar vein, last
year he joined with social conservatives to lead the fight in the
House for a ban on all forms of human cloning, even therapeutic
cloning.
Kucinich has a spiritual -- almost New Ageish -- side to his politics
he is not afraid to show. "There is a hunger out there for a message
that goes beyond traditional politics," he says. "My philosophy has
a lot to do with the potential for all of us to unfold." For several
years, Kucinich has been friends with best-selling, spirit-
celebrating author Marianne Williamson, who, he says, "has a
grasp of the deeper meanings of the American experience."
Regarding Kucinich, Williamson observes, "Many of us have felt so
frustrated for years, because hardly anyone within mainstream
politics swims the deeper river of the American psyche anymore . .
. But then comes Dennis, and it's as though he sounds a clarion
call to those of us trying to reconcile our love for this country with
our disdain for so much of what we have come to stand for . . . He's
a rare combination of poetry and power." She adds, "If he does run
for president, I'll help in any way I can."
IS KUCINICH PONDERING A PRESIDENTIAL bid? He pauses --
for a long time -- before answering: "I'm getting requests from
people across the country who ask me to consider it -- some from
people considered to be politically astute. But it's a bit early to
start that speculation." As political reporters are quick to note,
that's not a "no."
"I'd like to see him run for president," gushes Lila Garrett, the
immediate past president of the Southern California Americans for
Democratic Action, which provided last February's forum for
Kucinich's prayer. "Stranger things have happened. Look at Jesse
Ventura in Minnesota. I get calls every day from people asking
what they can do to support him." If Kucinich does steer in that
direction, it may be because of the encouragement flowing from the
support base he has cultivated in Los Angeles, where he often
speaks and raises money.
Would he have a prayer? Not since 1880 has a sitting member of
the House grabbed the presidential nomination of a major party.
And usually candidates need tens of millions of dollars to be
competitive -- a chunk of change likely beyond Kucinich's reach.
Still, a bid might be worth considering. Steve Cobble, a liberal
political strategist, says, "There is an opening in the 2004 field for a
progressive candidate who holds office, is used to organizing
grassroots support rather than depending on elites, and is brave
enough to lead rather than just report back on focus-group findings.
He or she would rally millions of American progressive voters who
currently have few political outlets for their energies." In the past,
ideologically minded long-shot candidates have seen presidential
campaigns bolster their status and influence. Pat Robertson's once-
powerful Christian Coalition rose out of his 1988 presidential run,
and Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 campaigns transformed him,
for a time, into the left's chief champion.
His prayer, Kucinich says, "was intended to let people know
there's a real threat to our Bill of Rights and Constitution." In
delivering it, Kucinich also won himself a much more prominent
pulpit.
