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 One True Voice on the TrailPosted on Jan 7, 2008
By Chris Hedges This article was originally published by The Philadelphia Inquirer. I am tired of living in a country where 16-year-old girls die because insurance company profits are more important than human life. I am tired of a government that runs offshore penal colonies where the detained are tortured and denied the basic protections of the Geneva Convention. I am tired of living in a state that makes war against countries that do not threaten us. I am tired of watching basic constitutional rights, such as the right to privacy, taken away from citizens. Most of all, I am tired of being told every four years that I must vote for candidates who do nothing to stop the brutal and callous assault by corporations on the American working class, sending their jobs overseas and stripping workers of benefits and human dignity. And so—to be sure that this year my vote goes to someone who does more than pay lip service to the moral and physical deterioration of the nation—I will pull the lever for Dennis Kucinich. I can hear the collective groan. He won’t win. He has no real following. It is a wasted vote. But this is the groan of the comfortable, those who have health insurance and a decent job. This is the groan of those who can send their kids to expensive colleges and probably went to one. The groans of the poor in this country, including the increasingly impoverished working class, are no longer audible to most of us. Their lives have been rendered invisible, of little interest to the advertisers who sell us products on television or take out full-page color ads in the newspapers and glossy magazines. And when the corporations write you off in America, everyone else does, too. Any vote is wasted that does not address the terrible injustices being done to tens of millions of people who have lost the opportunity to earn a living wage. Any vote is wasted that does not, even if it ends up being a protest vote, attempt to halt our transformation into an oligarchic state where a tiny, privileged elite controls our money and our politics. The irony and tragedy of the Kucinich candidacy is that, in many ways, he is proclaiming the failure of his own party. Again and again, he says what his party should be, but no longer is. He has championed democratic freedoms and defended the interests of the working class, from which he comes, for decades. He was alone among the major candidates to vote against the Patriot Act, against authorizing the war in Iraq, and he wants to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO). He has called for the impeachment of the vice president and public financing for elections. If you compare his voting record with that of any of the other major candidates, he is the only one who has steadfastly remained free from corporate control. I went to see Kucinich in Washington. I asked him during a two-hour interview why the Democratic Party has failed so badly. Why did the party, despite the midterm elections, refuse to cut funding for a war that is probably the worst foreign-policy blunder in U.S. history? “Lack of commitment to democratic principles,” he said after a long pause. He then began to list the reasons: “No understanding of the period of history we are in ... unwillingness to assert congressional authority in key areas which makes the people’s house paramount to protecting democracy; the institutionalized influence of corporate America through the Democratic Leadership Council. “Oil runs our politics, corrupt Wall Street interests run our politics, insurance companies run our politics, arms manufacturers run our politics, and the public’s interests are being strangled,” he added. He stands as a maverick within the party, denouncing the series of trade agreements, many put in place by Bill Clinton, which have devastated U.S. workers. “What I see is that the Democratic Party abandoned working people and paradoxically they are the ones who hoist the flag of workers every two and four years, only to engender excitement and then turn around and abandon the same constituency. This is now on a level of a practiced ritual.” Kucinich advocates a full-employment economy, calling for a new version of the 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed millions of Americans. He wants to put people to work to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, from its roads and bridges to its dams, levies, sewer systems, libraries and mass transit. He has introduced, along with Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, a bill, H.R. 3400, that would provide federal funds for this jobs program. He has called for the government to invest in wind and solar technologies to be retrofitted into tens of millions of U.S. homes and businesses. Kucinich is the only candidate in the race who advocates a single, not-for-profit health-care system for all citizens, in essence a national Medicare. He coauthored H.R. 676, which would provide universal health coverage. This coverage would, he said, not only assure that people will not suffer or die from lack of medical care, but would also stem the epidemic of personal bankruptcies, half of which are attributed to people who cannot pay their medical bills. He rails against his party’s refusal to end the war, blaming the Democrats’ decision to continue funding the war on “an implicit understanding of the power of those interests that profit from war and the power of war as an idea.” I asked him if he was ever frustrated, given his lonely status as an outsider. He was excluded from a Dec. 13 Democratic debate in Iowa sponsored by the Des Moines Register. His lack of corporate money has seen his campaign subsist on $2 million while Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama each raised $100 million in 2007 for their presidential bids. “What you do in life is you stand up and fight for those things you believe in,” he said, “and you do it without question or pause, to take a phrase in one of my favorite songs. I don’t have any complaints.” Previous item: A Conversation With Dennis Kucinich Next item: The Battleground of New Hampshire Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
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By kesa, January 11 at 6:37 pm # Re: As one of the twoYou will find that Dennis stated it is because of Edwards’ ties to Wall Street that he cannot endorse him. But for me, I am writing in Dennis no matter what.
By Sepharad, January 10 at 11:19 pm # As one of the twoAs one of the two Presidential hopefuls who are actually qualified* (*morally and effectively) to run this country, I find it odd that Kucinich is endorsing Obama, who may be moral and may be effective but has yet to identify any specific ideas beyond hope and change, rather than endorsing Edwards, who shares Kucinich’s beliefs and is continuing to tilt at the cash-sucking windmills of Hillary and Barack. Our consumer society has finally OD’d, or it wouldn’t be placing its pathetic hopes on rock-star-type celebrities. Oprah has spoken and we’re gonna get suckered again (unless Obama actually has some good ideas as yet hidden, and we are luckier than we deserve to be).
By im4mary, January 10 at 8:22 am # Excellent points; and I wholeheartedlyExcellent points; and I wholeheartedly agree. I’m voting for Dennis because my vote doesn’t count anyway, so I’m going to vote for who I really believe to be the best of the candidates. I live in a very Republican (aka devolving) state where granite is blasted away in our hills but moves nary an inch in our government. By the time I get to vote, the decision will already have been made and I’m assured that none of the delegates here will carry my vote forward in the upcoming national convention. I’m proud to say that I am a Democrat in name only, something that I subtley resent, actually. I prefer to be undeclared because I’m not one much for group activities! But the only way my vote might have been heard was to declare so I could vote for Dennis (if he’ll even be on our ballet; we didn’t get Nader before either). I would honestly hope that I could get another chance if Dennis would seriously consider running on an Independent ticket. But, again, my vote won’t count because the electoral college has declared so in the past. If we want a democracy, we’ve got alot of work to do!
By Conservative Yankee, January 10 at 5:51 am # By voice of truth, JanuaryBy voice of truth, January 9 at 3:30 pm # what a piece of crap “As for people who can not pay their medical bills.... What is your priority, to have a cell phone and flat TV and shiny car, or pay for health insurance? You can talk all you want about “Social Darwinism”, but it will only get worse as more people pretend they do not have to take any responsibility for themselves or their actions.” Now let me see, I can get a flat screen TV for $649 at Target, but I need a operation for prostate removal at the local hospital $42,645 which should I purchase. AND I do not know what figures you are viewing, but the “class below middle” has been increasing for the last 15 years, and is now 22% above what it was in 1992. See if this adds up. over the past 10 years wages have been static, rents, energy, and food prices have increased. what happens to the folks on the lower end of the middle class? What about the sub-prime crisis? are these folks “climbing the ladder? Come on VOT stand up and take responsibility for your words?
By Pat Henry, January 9 at 11:14 pm # I love the image.I love the image. But aren’t Diebold and the RNC holding the football? (See last Sunday’s NY Times Magazine Section).
By CJ, January 9 at 7:26 pm # Que-cinichAs for tonight’s comedian: Dana Milbank (who appeared on Olbermann’s “Countdown”), who mentioned Dennis Que-cinich as well as que-linary workers in Nevada. We know Bush knows perfectly well how to pronounce, “nuclear,” but that he prefers (in his ongoing attempt to come over as Slim Pickens, who was a whole lot brighter than Dubya) to pander to those who don’t or just won’t. Supposed print reporter, Milbank, actually doesn’t know how to pronounce Koo-cinich’s name. Nor how to pronounce “cul-inary.” Not to nit-pick or anything, except what does this fairly gross inaccuracy tell us? More serious news (I think?) is that culinary workers are endorsing Obama, who, far as I know, has never expressed much interest in labor per se—unionized or not. Whereas, Kucinich has had and does have a lot to say to labor, as does Edwards to a lesser extent. Is it really the case that media alone is responsible for the fact that even union labor doesn’t know which person would best represent its interests? (Thereby, interest of all in the end) Not likely. Like I was saying last night…about the neurotic terrified of actual change (“…fear of fear itself.”). Thanks to processes of socialization that begin upon emerging from the womb. This amounts to a society-wide pathology that is much more deeply entrenched than what Lakoff contends: “framing” of issues in patriarchal terms—as opposed to matriarchal. Far deeper than what Phillips contends in, “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” Reality is that Americans—as a WHOLE (not every single one, obviously)—have only contempt for labor, not to mention for those in poverty, all of whom by dint of indoctrination are believed (BELIEVED, no matter reason) to deserve their fate. Such is the final result of a plutocratic meritocracy, by now on the verge of out-and-out fascism. Or maybe more correctly: neo-Feudalism, as I prefer to think of latest version of capitalist “democratic” political-economy, attended by an ideology that runs deeper than any religious belief ever has. To the point society-wide pathology seems the only words to characterize what has gone so wrong. Though it’s been a long time in the realization. One symptom of pathology is rampant consumption, mostly of goods sold, not actually needed. Among other symptoms. There is no easy answer, no single entity to blame, though it would help were big media to admit to failure, tell it like it is. But that’s not about to happen. As we know every couple years when someone like Kucinich, or Nader, is shut out of media, but also thought in the minds of most as ridiculously idealistic. That judgment, as was the case with McGovern, is on the electorate in the final analysis, as it were. Big media is just biz as usual, not about to change it’s ways when bosses interests are being so well-served.
By Sodium, January 9 at 6:26 pm # Dennis Kucinich is a manDennis Kucinich is a man of substance.In order to
By larry brandes, January 9 at 1:21 pm # wake up red necks!!I am a hunter, Mr. Kucinich is a vegan. I eat deer I shoot with my longbow, he eats everything else I do except the deer. Every gun squeezer in this country should know that well there hero george ha professed to never take away their guns, he has managed to strip away most of the rights that make the working class right wing free thinking Americans. the massive brain washing methods have worked brilliantly on them. While they are conditioned to respond viciously to anything that sounds left wing, they are blind to all the rights and freedoms they have sacrificed for the one freedom to squeeze a gun. Kucinich doesn’t think anybody should have AK automatic weapons, he is not about to take away their rights. In fact he is in favor of restoring all the rights they are to brain washed to realize they lost. Rednecks you want to vote for someone who will stand up for your rights? Vote for Kucinich!!
By William H. Bassett, January 9 at 11:46 am # I watch in horrible fascination as . . . .I watch in horrid fascination as the media and press – C-span included – persists in what might metaphorically be described as providing a celebratory backyard weenie roast for the fire-fighters while the house is fully engulfed in flame. None of these ‘firefighters’ who each claim to be the one to save our nation, to place America on the ‘right path’, to restore our ‘national reputation’ – not one has honored his or her oath of office requiring that they protect and defend the Constitution. Only Dennis Kucinich, who the press has put at the end of the hotdog line at this weenie roast, has called out for investigations, for hearings to commence immediately into the MANY allegations of IMPEACHABLE OFFENCE leveled against the Bush/Cheney team. The house of our democracy, the Constitution, is being burnt down, while the nation is being distracted with the bread and circuses of the caucus and primary process that is being played as a great sporting event.
By Robert Stevens, January 9 at 6:00 am # Re: Ralph Nader“Those people play hardball to the death, and they’ll own us if you don’t kick them in the nuts.” This MUST be done. They have certainly been kicking us in the nuts for the last seven years, while bully pulpit school yard bully Bush smirks and while too many congressional democrats eggs him on to kick us harder. Let’s all get off our collective ass and VOTE for Dennis Kucinich. We CAN presently make America into the country that it once claimed to be. IF WE DON’T SUPPORT PEOPLE WHO ARE ON OUR SIDE, IT WILL LATER BE NECESSARY TO FIGHT AND DIE IN THE STREET FOR THE KIND OF COUNTRY THAT HUMANITY CRIES OUT FOR!
By CJ, January 8 at 7:43 pm # Hear, hear, Chris Hedges, theHear, hear, Chris Hedges, the good. I hope those, the bad, who still (stupidly) blame Nader for Gore’s defeat read Hedges’ piece. Todd Gitlin? Most militant of Nader haters. Ian Masters? Another one. Let us name names of those ostensibly on the left, but who like their right-wing counterparts insist on “realism.” Which means only that Dems should have voted for Gore/Kerry. I’m tired too, not least of these so-called leftists who do nothing but whine about the authentic left because it insists on democracy, as opposed to lesser of two evils or evil of two lessers. Note that likes of Gitlin and Masters do just fine in their ivory towers, while LA’s Richard Alarcon just pointed out that the federal government’s standard for determining whether or not a family of four lives in poverty is just a tad low for Los Angeles reality, at $21,000 per annum. Alarcon suggested that for LA reality is $54,000-$70,000. Yeah, more like it. I assume that $21,000 per annum for a family of four is no problem for candidates and their ideological backers; in particular, for Clinton AND Obama, maybe Edwards too. That to earn more than $21,000—no doubt between mom and dad—is to rise out of poverty in all of America. Twenty-one thousand dollars is pathetic ANYWHERE in America, never mind Los Angeles. I call these figures, “realism.” Only Kucinich and Nader and a few other even more obscure candidates recognize THIS realism, which serves to shorten life-span in the final analysis. People quite literally worked to death. Not performing work they just love, but performing tedious, extremely strenuous tasks that keep this society functioning for all our benefit. I write these words in response to Hedges’ piece while listening to “the ugly” comedians at Comedy Central II, aka MSNBC, comment on New Hampshire primary. As though New Hampshire remotely resembles America. I guess comedians (Matthews, Olbermann and Barnacle, not to leave out [little-Tim] Russert, Brokaw, even vanden Heuval) haven’t heard that New Hampshire is where well-heeled, Birkenstock Liberals are going to retire. Repubs went for war-/fear-monger (maverick) McCain, while Dems are going for Clinton/Obama, both of whom advocate “universal” healthcare—in the event family of four makes at least $54,000 per annum so as to afford mandated coverage. So long as taxes are never raised and healthcare and housing not matters of human rights. (Paul and Huckabee have a whole other extremely regressive plan when it comes to taxation.) Clinton, recall, is “experienced,” while Obama is for “change.” Neither has an actual plan to delay further transfer of wealth to top one percent—Mitt Romney territory. Comedians at MSNBC have spent the entire day commenting as to how Obama is riding a “wave.” “Wave” about to drown Hillary, apparently. Comedians refer to events as real “politics.” Yep, Matthews said so. Of course Kucinich is ignored, both by media AND by electorate, which, after 100 years of constructing empire, is terrified of New Deal-style change, not too different from a neurotic in need of deep therapy because systemically constrained as a result of having spent a lifetime constructing defense mechanisms, which while largely delusional, serve the purpose of keeping the neurotic safe and more or less comfortable, despite feeling alienated at the same time. And so, McCain (or Huckabee, or Romney, or Giuliani), as well as Clinton/Obama/Edwards—any of them, so long as “change” doesn’t amount to change, which, let’s just admit to it, might involve some minimal sacrifice in the general interest of those suffering the most. That would be just TOO egalitarian (Mr. Paine), given capitalist democracy, an oxymoron if there ever was one. Not THAT surprising comedians, candidates and electorate are all so confused. Kucinich is down to one percent in New Hampshire, where motto (not applicable since Redcoats were sent packing) is: “Live free, or die.” Yeah, yeah…right, whatever.
By Tom Semioli, January 8 at 8:37 am # I am holding the DemocratsI am holding the Democrats responsible not only for the illegal occupation of Iraq, but also for excluding Dennis from the debates. Ditto the Republicans for the “war” and Ron Paul’s exclusion. So I will proudly vote independant once again. I urge my fellow Americans to do the same.
By Conservative Yankee, January 8 at 5:56 am # Reason? How about this?“That the food that is delivered to the store you shop at does use that bridge;” AND the cost of Transportation is reflected in the price I pay for that food “...the items you ordered from Amazon or whereever use that bridge;” AND the cost of Transportation is reflected in the price I pay for those goods. the police dept uses that bridge, the fire dept uses that bridge, and when you have a heart attack perhaps the paramedics will use that bridge when they come for you! IF those services are available for free in Texas, I may just move there, here in Maine the paramedics are paid through our medical insurance, or out-of-pocket, the ambulance is a privately owned business which pays gas tax, Excise tax, and a weight use fee all of which goes to road improvement. My point is that those who USE the bridge should support its construction and repair. Any other way leaves me subsidizing private business ...and One thing I love about those folks who say “We should all support the ‘commons’” Those “commons” keep increasing… I support (through my taxes) local education, State education (the college system) a al services delivery system which does almost nothing of benefit for the majority of Mainers, A railroad with a terminus 300 miles from where I live, three separate law enforcement systems, a bridge for tourists across Verona Island complete with observation tower, a new border patrol and customs station on a border with a Canadian Island where the families have lived with relative freedom to enter the US and buy stuff for over 200 years, (been over there almost everyday for the last 20 years… No terrorists I promise) Maybe it would be nie to have all these luxuries… Maybe the common good IS served by a “trophy” bridge for tourists… maybe in some time past, we DID need three separate law enforcement agencies,, BUT it is time to make some hard choices. I support national health care, single payer, and not for profit… It makes economic sense as well as being humane… it also serves THE MAJORITY and I would be happy to help pay for it… I’m not happy with the status quo where bridges are supported by those who never use them…
By Pat Henry, January 8 at 12:54 am # I like your example: "...I like your example: “… Why you should pay for the bridge, even though you don’t drive? ... “ It, and similar examples, might help explain why we should support public education to those who champion school vouchers ... We’re senior citizens a half-century removed from our own public school days ... but we are passionate about the urgent need for high quality public education for all Americans and are willing to support it with our tax dollars. But that’s all off topic ...
By Joe, January 8 at 12:20 am # cyrena, January 7 at 5:30cyrena, January 7 at 5:30 am peed to windward with: 1) What does collection of a State or Federal Income Tax have to do with allocating resources and avoidance of (ruinous) debt? My take is that consumption/sales taxes are far less intrusive and costly to administer and, in most States, will bring in massive revenues. 2) re: your claims as to infrastructure, from “The Dallas News:” [ “In written requests he (Congressman Paul) submitted to the House Appropriations Committee, the Lake Jackson Republican asked for $8.6 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain the Texas City Channel and $10 million for the Galveston Rail Causeway Bridge. He also asked for money for a nursing program, expansion of a cancer center at Brazosport Hospital, a seafood testing program, a Children’s Identification and Location Database and $8 million for Wild American Shrimp Marketing requested by the Texas Shrimp Association. If it means anything, I’ve concluded Hillary or any of the Democrats will move the world in a decent direction.
By john from ojai, January 8 at 12:13 am # The media is owned byThe media is owned by conglomerates that have one goal; to make money. Any candidate that can hurt the bottom line will be marginalized. Approximately 6 conglomerates own all of the media in the U.S.. Most of these also have businesses involved in military supply and nuclear energy. Kucinich would break up the media, end the war in Iraq, not go to war with Iran, and promote energy solutions that have none of the dangers of nuclear. Do you think these industries wouldn’t marginalize Kucinich when they got the chance? The answer is yes they would. The first ABC debate was rigged to give Kucinich very little time. Even with that huge obstacle he was the winner of the ABC online poll asking who won the debate? When it became clear that Dennis was winning, they removed the highly visible poll. They also removed him from the group photo of debaters. Kucinich not newsworthy? Did you know that he has won most of the major online polls by large margins? DFA, Nation, Progressive Democrats of America, Independent Primary.Com. You probably won’t read about it in the media.Did you know that Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to oppose the Iraq war and its funding,the only one to oppose the Patriot Act, the only one to introduce impeachment legislation, the only one to not take donations from corporate lobbies. These are all newsworthy stories that you won’t read about in the media. If you would help Dennis enact media reform you will hear much more information that you’ve been denied. Make your contribution to dennis4president.com |
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