Fear this man.
Who is he? Dennis Kucinich, Congressman, D-OH! (Wow, that says "DOH!" What a subtle revelation.)
What does he do? Takes his constituents' contributions to run for President, while doing nothing but blowing hot air as a Congressman.
So, he's running for President? Yes.
What's his platform? Anti-war, ultra-lib. Loves having the state do everything for everyone. Gave up on his pro-life, and other somewhat conservative views when he learned the Dems would give him better support and a better base.
Does he have a chance to win? No. Last go-round, he could scarcely garner 1% of votes in the Democratic primaries. So, if his flock increases tenfold, he still isn't anywhere close to gaining a majority.
Then, why should we fear him? Remember, I said he's an ultra-lib. Whacko. Space cadet. Living outside of reality. Hollywood libs LOVE him. And...
he makes every other Democratic candidate look moderate in comparison. He skews the political continuum, just because the Dems give him a voice and allow him to waste their money for 4-6 months during the primaries.
So, you can have other liberal candidates that are to the right of Kucinich, and most are. If you offer up 3-4 liberal candidates that are right of Kucinich, you still have choices of 3-4 liberal candidates, and no Democratic choices for socially or fiscally conservative candidates. It's a win for Dems.
It also makes practically all conservative positions look extreme, even when they are not. Remember, you measure the middle by the extremes. He moves the middle away from moderate positions and into liberalism.
As I said, fear this man. Even though he has no chance of winning anything, his inclusion in the Presidential race automatically tilts all debate in favor of left-leaning liberalism, and away from moderate to conservative positions.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Dennis the Menace
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12 comments:
Alas, you're right.
Is he still a member of the communist party too?
It seems like the whole field may skew left this time, Republicans included.
He may be a loony, but he was right about the Iraq war (since he's opposed it from the very beginning). Then again, being right is not the only thing ... I don't know if he was right about not going into Iraq for the 'right' reasons.
Plus he's just freaky looking.
D'OH!
Says it all...
I shall post him on my 10 most scary list
Be afraid...be very afraid
Marie: I dunno, but they'd certainly take him back if he is not.
Jane: Instead of being skewed, they should all be skewered.
Yoda: He has been consistent to a fault, per se. Now, he has to appease the far, far, far left to get votes. I don't think he will ever snap back to a middle ground; he now has too much (2%, maybe?) to lose.
Polly: Yep. And he represents the great state of Ohio. Blech.
Kayla: I'd hate to see the other nine on your list. Do they include Freddie Krueger and Kofi Annon, too? :-)
Hey Quipper!
This is just a test comment. I am having difficulty signing in on Scott's blog in order to post a comment. Since Scott uses 'Beta' and you don't, I figured I would try here to see if there is a difference.
If you want, you can delete this comment.
Thanks Quipper!
P.S.
Is Scott around these days?
J - I've been arbitrarily having trouble leaving comments lately myself.
Scott is alive and kickin', just saw him Wednesday night.
Hmmm, I wonder what's wrong with blogger.
Anyway, just say hi to Scott for me and "kick him in the teeth."
:-D
Kucinich does more than blow hot air. In the 1970s, he stood ground against the plutocrats to prevent privatization of Cleveland Muny Light, saving residents tens-of-millions. He ultimately received an award from the citizens of Cleveland for this courageous, principled stand, for which he kenw he would get hammered.
Attack on Muny Light: In the 1970s, Kucinich researched FirstEnergy's predecessor, CEI, attack the City's (people's) electric company. Kucinich exposeed CEI's efforts to put Muny Light out of business. In the 1970s, CEI was subjected to an antitrust review that revealed it had committed numerous violations of federal antitrust law. The review determined that CEI blocked Muny Light from making inftrastructure maintenance repairs. This was done by lobbying the Cleveland City Council make the Muny Light bonds uncompetative. The delay in repairs caused Muny Light to have to purchase power. CEI then worked behind the scenes to block Muny Light from purchasing power from other power companies. CEI became the only power company Muny Light could buy from. At that point, CEI sharply increased and sometimes tripled the cost of purchase power to Muny Light. As a result, Muny Light began to lose money. CEI used Muny Light's weakened operational and financial condition (which they created) as evidence of the public system's lack of viability and as proof that the only way the people of Cleveland could have reliable power was for the city to sell its electric system to CEI.
The antitrust review cited one incident when during a period of inclement weather, Muny Light asked CEI for a special transfer of emergency power. The transfer of power was conducted in such a way so as to cause an outage on the Muny Light system. CEI used the incident as further proof of the City's inability to operate a municipal electric system.
Corporate Media Role: Throughout this period, the Cleveland media, which received substantial advertising revenues from CEI, crusaded against the city's ownership of a municipal electric system.
Monopoly Nearly Forms: In 1976, CEI finally succeeded in getting the mayor and the council of Cleveland to agree to sell Muny Light, giving CEI a monopoly. At that time, Kucinich was clerk of the Cleveland Municipal Court, a citywide elected office. He organized a civic campaign to save Muny Light. People gathered signatures in freezing rain to block the sale.
Kucinich Runs for Mayor:He ran for mayor of Cleveland on a promise that if elected, his first act would be to cancel the sale of Muny Light. He won the election. He cancelled the sale. CEI immediately went to court to demand that the city pay 15 million dollars for power which it had purchased while CEI was running up charges to the city. The previous mayor had intended to pay that light bill by selling the light system and simultaneously disposing of a 325 million dollar antitrust damage suit. Kucinich's election not only stopped the sale, but kept the lawsuit alive.
Plutocrats Collaborate: The Muny Light issue came to a head on December 15, 1978, when Ohio's largest bank, Cleveland Trust, the 33rd largest bank in America at that time, told Kucinich that they would not renew the city's credit on 15 million dollars worth of loans taken out by the previous administration unless he would agree to sell Cleveland's municipally owned utility to CEI.
On that day, by that time, the sale of Muny Light was being promoted by both Cleveland newspapers, virtually all of the radio and TV stations in town, the entire business community, all the banks, both political parties, and several unions, as well as a majority of the Cleveland City Council. All Kucinich had to do was to sign his name to legislation and the system would have sold and the city credit "protected." The chairman of Cleveland Trust even offered 50 million dollars of new credit if he would agree to sell Muny Light.
Kucinich's Principles: "Where I come from it matters how much people pay for electricity. I grew up in the inner city of Cleveland. The oldest of 7 children. My parents never owned a home, they lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a couple of cars."
"When I was in the board room with the Chairman of Cleveland Trust Bank, I was thinking about my parents counting their pennies and I could hear those pennies hitting the enamel top table. So, I said no to the sale of Muny Light to CEI."
Cleveland Forced into Default by Plutocrats: At Midnight, Cleveland Trust put the City of Cleveland into default. Later, it was revealed, that Cleveland Trust and CEI had four interlocking directors. Cleveland Trust was CEI's bank. Together with another bank, Cleveland Trust owned a substantial share of CEI stock and had numerous other mutual interests.
Public power was saved in Cleveland But Kucinich paid the high-price of Courage: He lost the election in 1979 with default as the major issue. Most political analysts considered his career over. He had been asked many times by other politicians why he just didn't make the deal and sell the light system, especially when his career was on the line. Kucinich said, "I believe that there are, in fact, some things more important than the next election."
After he left City Hall, he couldn't get a job in Cleveland, he almost lost his home, and his marriage fell apart. According to a US Senate Subcommittee studying organized crime in the Mid-Atlantic states, Kucinich had survived, through sheer luck, an assassination plot.
Cleveland Trust changed it name to AmeriTrust. The new mayor changed the name of Muny Light to Cleveland Public Power.
Muny Light Thrives: In 1993, the City of Cleveland announced that it was expanding Muny Light. It was the largest expansion of any municipal electric system in America. I had been long gone from major elected office.
A Cleveland Plain Dealer contacted Kucinich and told him that people were saying that the expansion could not have happened without him making a decision to save the system. People in Cleveland began to say that Kucinich was right not to sell Muny Light and they asked him to come back to accept an award of appreciation. So he did. He ran for State Senate in 1994 on a slogan "because he was right" with little rays of yellow light shining behind his name on my campaign signs. He was one of the few Democrats to unseat a Republican incumbent that year in a state election.
Two years later, he was one of the few Democrats to unseat a Republican incumbent to gain election to Congress. His campaign signs had a light bulb behind his name with the words "Light up Congress."
G'day, GDAE: (nice handle, btw)
The principles for which he stood back then, on the topic you referred, was a populist platform. He indicates that he is still a populist politician, but he is not.
How can you be populist and socialist at the same time? You can't.
Yes, big business has its own problems, I don't deny that. However, I don't believe that trust in government is any better than trust in business.
And, no, I don't believe in government entitles to business. If the business can't make it on its own, it should fold.
Right, G'day.
I respectfully disagree that socialists must be inconsistent with populists. Socialists are not, by definition, authoritarian, though some have been (e.g., Russians, Chinese).
For example, if the populace wants to cut out the health insurance middle-man's profits, by having a single-payer system managed by their populist government, then ... that's a populist choice. (If an authoritarian government imposes the very same health system, it's not a populist choice).
The problem we face is that the corporate plutocracy has captured our government. Neither major party answers to the populace any more.
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