Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, released a press release on August 25 which says he plans to meet with political leaders who aren’t Democrats and Republicans, and to make an active plea for support from voters who aren’t registered into the two major parties. The press release says he has already met with several leaders of the Committee for a United Independent Party (CUIP).
The press release says, “Independent voters are a critical and growing constituency in American politics that must be related to and recognized as a major progressive force in our democracy. Independents are in the forefront for political reform and social change.”
This is good news. I hope that means after the Democratic horse and pony show is done, he’s considering an independent run.
I doubt it. What it usually means is that, like 2004, he wants to “Pied Piper” folks into the Democratic Party so when he loses the nomination that he can try to convince them to vote for Hillary/Kerry/Gore.
Basically he’s asking them to leave their third parties and join the Dems.
Since the vast majorities of independents are not registered in any party, I think this is positive development.
We’ll have to see what kind of price he pays inside the Democratic Party for it.
I don’t think getting independents to join one of the major parties is in anyway a positive development. I agree that this is suspicious, and Kucinich often seems to function as an out let for those would otherwise see the light and leave the DP. I often wonder if Kucinich is the Democrats means of keeping a Nader or whoever on the independent left, from getting any real traction.
This is not suspicious whatsoever. Even though he is running as a Democrat, Dennis has a hard time relating to what the democratic party has become and in this sense, he himself can be considered an independent, although he does not choose to speak of this since he has no reason to not run as a democrat since he believes that his policies are the norm for the democratic party and that the others are to the ‘right’ of him. Regardless, his views are very progressive and I’m sure many independents can relate to his policy and vision of America. Besides, Nader (a good friend of Dennis) said that if Dennis is the democratic nominee, he won’t run 🙂
This is not good news at all. The Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP) is a cultish, LaRouche-like affair run by Lenora Fulani and Fred Newman (Google those names if you don’t know who they are), who became infamous in the 3rd party world with their New Alliance Party many years ago. If Dennis Kucinich is too naive to know what this group is all about, and if his staff doesn’t have the good sense to keep him from further solidifying his kooky public image, then he deserves his solid lock on 1% in the polls. Finally, if he really thinks that his hobnobbing with CUIP is going to bring swarms of non-affiliated voters to the primary polls to vote Kucinich, he is really out to lunch. I was very disappointed to see Ralph Nader work with this outfit back in 2004 as well. He should know better.
I think it’s a good sign that DK is distancing himself from what used to be called the ‘Democratic Party’. I have written him in the past urging him to abandon that party which abandoned progressive principles some 30 years ago.
I share ‘David Gaines’ concern about whom he is dealing with as far as 3rd Party options. I would encourage him to join the Green Party…Lenora Fulani has always struck me as something of a shady character.
DK would be an interesting presidential candidate for the Green Party. But I would guess that he would have to give up his congressional seat. Cris Ericson ran for Governor and Senator simultaneously in Vermont to legalize marijuana in 2004, but they were not two FEDERAL offices.
Where does DK stand on building a double-fence or double-wall on the border of Mexico? Anybody?
Hillary and Chuckie from NY BOTH voted “yes” to the wall in the Senate.
In answer to shanghijoe
the following is from Campaign for America’s Future, June 20, 2007
see http://home.ourfuture.org/assets/tba2007-transcript-dennis_kucinich.pdf
or http://tinyurl.com/27e797
open quote:
Our policies and this big debate about immigration that has basically cowed the Senate into submission has ignored one fact, and that is that the immigrant workers who have come north of the border were there because after NAFTA passed, wages collapsed in Mexico, the peso dropped, and people were desperate to survive. So what happened? So they came north of the border and they were willing to work for next to nothing.
It is a blot on American history that we have maintained a system of slave labor, and now we’re blaming the immigrants for that. (Cheers, applause.) We need a president who understands. We can heal this country. We can have sane immigration policies. But we have to stop blaming the victim. (Cheers, applause.) We have to start enforcing labor law. We have to start enforcing laws that relate to corporate conduct. (Cheers, applause.) We have to have a sane immigration policy, but we have to also make sure that we do not exclude people from an opportunity.
Those who have been here, who have paid their taxes and paid their dues and been part of our economy for the last decade need to have a chance to have a path to citizenship. They should not be told, after they’ve made their contribution to our economy, “No, we don’t want you anymore; go home,” because America is their new home. And their children should have basic rights. (Cheers, applause.) And we have to make sure that children have a right to education and health care as well.
close quote:
The two major parties have destroyed free elections in the United States by making it impossible for anyone except their corrupt candidates to run for public office. Their latest move here in Arizona was to pass legislation to take the option to register independent off from the Arizona voter registration form leaving only a space marked Specify Party Preference. The immediate result of this can be seen in statistics for registration of new independent voters.
2000-2002 107,771
2002-2004 165,715
2004-2006 26,483
The whole truth of the matter is that the two-party system of political corruption is now in about the same position the Nazi Party was in about 1932 in Germany. They have destroyed free elections in the United States.
Forget about third parties. Democrats and Republicans have them stopped. Forget about putting an eccentric billionaire independent candidate on the ballot. Independent voters have almost no voter access left, and what does exist is disappearing as we speak. That leaves write-in candidacy and some states where independent voters can still run for office.
What is missing are independent voters willing to be candidates.
Party totalitarianism should be opposed, but Americans are all either gang member Democrats and Republicans or independent cowards at the present time.
In 1943 a German boy in Hamburg, Germany, invited his friend over to his house to listen to BBC. This was against the law in Nazi Germany, but the boys did it anyway. Noticing the difference in what BBC was reporting as news about the war and what the German news media was reporting, the boy with the radio, also having access to a printing press, decided to print a little newsletter to distribute in his neighborhood giving the BBC account of events. He enlisted the help of the other boy and another friend from school in distributing the leaflets in his working class neighborhood. They put them in mailboxes, on bulliten boards, etc., and, needless to say, the Gestapo was not happy with their newsletter. It took the Gestapo some time to find out who had perpetrated this act of disobedience because they were concentrating their manpower looking for a Communist cell, and were surprised to find that the culprits were three high school students sixteen years old.
The boys were arrested and charged with treason. The boy with the radio was convicted of that charge and sentenced to death and executed by guillotine, while the two other boys were convicted on lesser charges and sentenced to ten and three years in prison, which they served in various prison camps until they were liberated by Allied troops, which is how we know of this incident today.
Independent voters need to compare the news media in the United States today with a real news media such as the one started by these three German boys and ask, Why should any independent voter even want to be mentioned in the American media of today?
They are no different from the German media of that time, party-controlled and party operated, serving only the interests of party organization.
Independent Americans need to start their own news media.
Robert B. Winn