When someone whose opinions I respect as much
as John Nichols' joins those who have been saying since 2003
that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich should
announce that he's not REALLY running for president, I feel
compelled to reply. Nichols, like most Americans, supports
the same policy positions that I do and that Kucinich does.
Nichols would end foreign occupations, cancel NAFTA, create
single-payer health coverage, invest in education and green
energy, bust media monopolies, and impeach Bush and Cheney.
Nichols believes, in fact, that Kucinich is
too good a candidate to succeed in our electoral system. But
he believes that Kucinich can have a major impact on the other
candidates and on Congress if he continues to run while telling
everyone that he does not intend to win.
Nichols lists Bill Richardson as one of the
"more prominent and moneyed" candidates who is supposedly
stealing Kucinich's thunder, even though Richardson has been
trailing Kucinich in the polls. In fact, the demand that Kucinich
not be a real candidate has never quite held up even on its
own terms, namely that candidates trailing in polls and cash
should step back. If Kucinich were merely trailing in polls
and cash, I doubt any progressives would be urging him to
concede. What Kucinich has always decisively trailed in is
support from the corporate media.
Imagine if G.E. and Disney and Viacom all shut
Kucinich out, mocked and ridiculed him, and "reported"
on his non-viability, exactly as they've done for the past
four years, but that nobody who agrees with Kucinich played
along. Imagine if labor unions backed the most pro-labor candidate.
Imagine if peace activists backed the most pro-peace candidate.
Imagine if health advocates backed the candidate with the
best health coverage plan. Et cetera. And imagine if progressive
media outlets and bloggers refused to take their marching
orders from the corporate media. Of course, this is not the
world in which we now live, and that's not John Nichols' fault.
But the progressive proposal that Kucinich concede is a reworking
of the corporate demand that he concede and would not exist
without it. Last time around, the New York Times
asked Kucinich to quit the race before the race had started
and before the New York Times had told anyone what
Kucinich proposed for the presidency. The progressive demand
that Kucinich back down is a direct descendant of that
New York Times article.
Fox News would love for Kucinich to agree that
he is not a real candidate, but Fox would hate for Kucinich
to disappear altogether.
Having him around to attack serves Fox's purposes.
Nichols would have Kucinich do exactly what Fox would have
him do, announce that he is not running to win but running
to influence others. Nichols and others who take his position
do not see this as backing down, but as being smart and strategic.
It's probably neither.
Of course, for any given individual debating
whether to send money to Kucinich or support him in any way,
the primary motivation should be influencing the other candidates
and the Congress. There is an urgent need to influence our
national politics, and giving Kucinich's campaign a boost
would be one of the easiest and, indeed, most viable ways
to do it. Flooding Congress with phone calls and emails and
faxes doesn't work very well. Marching a half million people
around the Capitol on a Saturday has no noticeable impact.
Boycotting your most hated corporations tends not to change
Nancy Pelosi's mind on anything. Creative civil disobedience
can work very well and requires minimal resources, but most
people prefer to write checks, letters to editors, and blogs.
But here's the thing: People who want to support
Kucinich in order to influence Pelosi or Clinton or Reid or
Edwards can do so RIGHT NOW.
They always could. If Kucinich announces that
he's not trying to actually win, strategic support for him
will gain nothing. But other support for him will be lost,
including his own support. There are those, including the
candidate himself, who are motivated by either the belief
that he can win or the belief that our democracy can be defended
through a principled refusal not to bow down to our televisions.
By all means, Kucinich should ask people to
support him in order to impact the national conversation.
But Kucinich reduced to a one-man activist organization would
lose what little impact he has as a full-fledged candidate.
How often do you see spokespeople for progressive activist
groups on TV?
By all means, Kucinich should stop predicting
with absolute certainty that he will be the next president.
But he should not make the fatal mistake (fatal for our electoral
system) of conceding that he will NOT be the next president.
He should leave the predictions to the pundits, as we citizens
should do as well.
Here's something else we should do. Get up
every morning and write a check for $5 to Kucinich for President.
In the little note line in the corner, write "Thanks
for Impeachment." Photocopy the check and send the copies
to Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Paul, Pelosi, Conyers, and Schumer.
Then send the original check to Kucinich. Repeat daily until
satisfactory results achieved.
Democracy for America (DFA) is a grassroots
group closely tied to the Democratic Party and born out of
Howard Dean's presidential campaign, many of the supporters
of which favored positions like those of Kucinich. Kucinich
is currently leading in DFA's unscientific online poll. Last
spring, Kucinich finished third in a DFA poll, third in a
Moveon.org poll, and second in a poll at Democrats.com. If
a good fraction of the people who say "I'd back Kucinich
if he had a chance," were to send him $100, he would
indeed have a chance. More importantly and with greater likelihood,
he would also impact the agenda in Congress where Pelosi currently
follows Clinton's lead. But you don't often hear people remarking
"I'd back Kucinich if I thought Pelosi would notice."
That's not how most people tend to think about elections.
People do, however, think (if that's the word
for it) strategically about backing the candidate who will
win, rather than the candidate they agree with. And the corporate
media sells them on the idea that right-wing "swing voters"
decide everything. But, did you ever wonder why the Republicans
seem so much less obsessed with swing voters? Chris Bowers
has presented a strong
case that these mythical creatures do not actually exist.
Only 4.7% of voters changed their mind during the last election
from Bush to Kerry or Kerry to Bush. Kerry may have been swiftboated,
but hardly anyone changed their mind from backing Kerry to
backing Bush. What did happen, of course, is that millions
of supporters of Kerry (and of Bush too) didn't bother to
vote or to register to vote. What would it take for the Democrats
to register and turn out likely Democratic voters in sufficient
numbers to beat election fraud? It would take a candidate
who wasn't for the war before he was against it. The mushy
middle turns potential voters away.
You can refuse to back Kucinich for fear of
being teased for backing a loser. But backing a corporate
Democrat who has voted to fund the occupation of Iraq is actually
a good way to lose the general election. So is impeachment
avoidance. As John Nichols lays out so brilliantly in his
book "The
Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism,"
the party that brings impeachment wins. When the Republicans
tried to impeach Truman they won. When the Democrats tried
to impeach Nixon they won. When the Democrats refrained from
impeaching Reagan they lost. When the Republicans impeached
Bill Clinton against the will of the public, they won the
White House and kept both houses of Congress.
There are peace activists and other progressives
who favor the creation of a third party, and who argue against
backing Kucinich because they think he'll lose and then endorse
a less desirable candidate. Those worries would be bolstered
by Nichols' proposal. As soon as Kucinich says he's not really
running, the only question he'll be asked will be "Who
are you backing?" Sure, his answer could be used to nudge
the other Democrats, but an honest answer based on his platform
would include the possibility of not backing a Democrat. And
that would be the end to Kucinich as any sort of candidate,
as he would be locked out of Democratic debates.
Kucinich is less likely to lose and more likely
to influence the other candidates if he refuses to concede
and if those who agree with him support him. Supporting him
now will serve primarily to help end the occupation of Iraq
prior to the election. And supporting Kucinich will not make
the task of building a third party any more or less daunting.
A third-party peace candidate would need everything Kucinich
has and much more in qualifications, and much, much more in
money in order to have a chance. Not backing Kucinich because
he's not "viable" can lead only by the most twisted
logic to backing the virtually impossible candidacy of a third
party progressive.
And here's something interesting about Kucinich.
He supports all the reforms to our election and campaign finance
systems that would make it possible for third parties to compete,
if he does not go back on his word after he wins elections.
When Kucinich was elected mayor of Cleveland at the age of
31 on a promise not to privatize the city's electricity, he
stuck to his word in the face of an all-out assault from the
city's media and corporate rulers. When his decision was vindicated
years later by the fortune he'd saved the city, he re-entered
politics.
When the Democratic leadership pulled out every
trick to pressure congress members to vote for the Supplemental
war spending bill last spring, Kucinich voted no. Efforts
to build decent third parties like the Green Party are to
be applauded, but backing Kucinich is one way to do that.
Check
out Kucinich's substantive and specific positions on a
hundred and one issues facing this country. And remember,
Kucinich's height may be hard to change, but he doesn't fall
off everything he rides, give inappropriate shoulder massages,
or shoot his buddies in the face. He may have seen a UFO,
but he didn't see any WMDs.
David
Swanson is co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition
and a board member of Progressive Democrats of America.
His website is www.davidswanson.org. Click
here to contact Mr. Swanson and BC.