Why Kucinich Should Concede Nothing

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.

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.

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.