Some of my thoughts for Dean and Kucinich supporters: Democrats’ Attacks on Dean Enhance Bush’s Re-election Prospects (A bit long, sorry)
Attached below is quite a well written article talking about how the Democrats attacking Dean actually hurt his chances against Bush in November, if he becomes the nominee. The writer also succeeds in keeping clear the distinction between attacks from the right virus the attacks from the left. For example, I don't think that the attacks on Dean from the left affect his re-election prospects against Bush in November. If anything, they serve to counter the GOP propaganda that Dean is too liberal. I will however come to the defense of Dean if attacked from the right on his various positions such as his opposition to the war, support for expanded health care, repealing Bush's tax cuts to the rich, liberal stance on social issues, etc. If we let Dean fall because of his perceived "liberal" image, then Kucinich will have to face that same firing squad next on the same issues.
What the Kucinich supporters should be hoping for and helping in the efforts of is to have the field dramatically narrowed by having the pro-war, pro-status quo, less-electable candidates such as Leiberman, Clark, Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards drop out as soon as possible, and this will certainly happen when the voters speak with their ballots. It is also predictable that Al Sharpton and Carol Mosley-Braun will also drop out sooner rather than later since they actually don't have any money or any grassroots organization of dedicated volunteers on a national level.
We Kucitizens know that Kucinich is not going to drop out at all, and is in it till the Democratic National Convention in July. He is the only other candidate besides Dean to have an extensive grassroots organization made up of mostly unpaid volunteers in all 50 states. He has qualified for FEC eligibility for matching funds by raising the required amount of money in over 20 states in amounts no larger than $250 from each contributor. This FEC certification also automatically puts him on the ballot for several states' primaries. In an amazing exercise of democracy and display of grassroots organization, over 500 Kucinich volunteers braved the cold and snow to collect over 16 thousand signatures in the short amount of time given for qualifying Dennis and his delegates to appear on the statewide primary ballot in NY. He has additional efforts underway to get him on the ballot of every single state for the primaries. The Democratic voters everywhere will have the option to choose Kucinich should they feel that he is viable and represents their issues well. He has raised $9 million despite the non-existent press coverage with more money still to come. His campaign has zero debt and operating costs are minimal leaving a bulk of the money raised to be used towards other necessary expenses such as traveling, campaign materials, and advertising. The traffic to his website in recent weeks has surged moving him to a close second position behind Dean and still climbing, according to www.alexa.com. His supporters strongly believe in their candidate and will not quit the race until Dennis himself decides that it's time to drop. Kucitizens are convinced that not only is Kucinich the best guy for the nomination, but that he is actually going to be the next president of the US. He has an impressive list of celebrity endorsers that play a critical role in getting his message out there.
If Dean and Kucinich are left remaining as the only two viable candidates, then the debate within the Democratic Party can shift towards the goal of reclaiming its sole and purpose and presenting a unified and progressive platform to the American citizens when challenging George Bush in November. Dean and Kucinich campaigns can make their case for why their candidate would be better for the country, as well as why their candidate would be more electable against Bush. I am obviously biased and feel that if a debate (under fair moderation) was to happen between Dean and Kucinich, that Kucinich would come out as having the best positions as well as more electable of the two. I welcome any Dean supporters to present their thoughts and arguments if they disagree with me on this. I am sure that there are many Dean supporters who will remain convinced that Dean is the best candidate and they have the right to that opinion and to support their candidate of choice.
There is also the issue of the highly negative behavior of bashing each other's candidates. There's a lot of negative and misleading information out there about both the candidates created and distributed with the intent of harming these two campaigns. I'm not going to repeat any of those accusations here, but I will mention that when any Dean supporter (or anyone else) refuses to discuss the issues that Dennis raises and dismisses them as the ideas of a fringe lunatic, it causes the Kucinich supporters to feel censored and unfairly attacked, and that they are being denied their democratic right of supporting the candidate that best represents their issues. It is my belief that the mainstream media is censoring Kucinich's campaign because they are really scared of any change in the status quo, and are aware that if more people hear about Dennis or think that Dennis has a chance at all of winning, that Dennis will get sweeping levels of support. They are afraid of the Kucinich revolution and are trying to stop it by pretending it doesn't exist or by dismissing it as impossible to happen. If any of the Democratic candidates' supporters, including Dean's, are seen as dismissing Kucinich in exactly the same way as the media does, then it puts that candidate's supporters in the same camp as the media which is hostile to any change in the status quo and the bringing about of a Kucinich revolution. It is my suggestion to the Kucinich supporters that if they are being dismissed by arguments of non-viability and the opposing person is not taking a rational approach to this, that they move on to the next task since their time is valuable and should not be spent preaching to the wall. Whomsoever doubts the ability of Kucinich to get delegates in the primaries will have to contend with thousands of Kucinich volunteers working very hard to win voter support.
I feel that it is important to spend the primary season campaigning in a spirit of friendly and fair competition. It is a necessary fact that we will have to come together to support the eventual nominee but let's not make that harder to accomplish by resorting to negative campaigning against one another. My suggestion to Dean and Kucinich supporters is to not bash each other's candidates on baseless accusations or allegations, and rather make a positive case for their candidate based on the issues at hand. Truth will always come out ahead.
A lot of Dean supporters feel that they cannot imagine that they live in a country that would elect a person like Dennis to be the president, and because of that they are supporting someone realistic like Dean. I can imagine Dennis being the next president of the US because I believe in the power of democracy to allow people the chance to choose as their leader anyone who they feel is the best person for the job. It is my hope that the Dean supporters who actually think that Kucinich is a better candidate but are in the Dean camp solely because they feel he is the frontrunner will reconsider their decision, as it becomes clearer that Kucinich is going to win this. It will happen much faster if they did so right away without waiting.
Peace,
Tayyab.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-01.htmPublished on Wednesday, January 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Democrats’ Attacks on Dean Enhance Bush’s Re-election Prospects
by Stephen Zunes
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THE TV IS LYING TO YOU!
Welcome to the revolution
http://www.kucinich.us/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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