What you win with your vote for Kucinich

A video posted at afterdowningstreet.org shows Dennis Kucinich in an interview, discussing what someone is voting for when they vote for him:

Kucinich on What You Win With Your Vote

My apologies to those of you on dial-up, for posting so many video links, but that seems to be the most effective way candidates who are being ignored by mainstream media have of getting their message across, and if you can view this particular video, I recommend it because it’s a great demonstration of this candidate’s calm, measured yet firm and persistent approach to the issues. I’m sharing textual links as well, in order to offer a balance. Obviously I hope lots of you will decide, as I have, to vote for Dennis Kucinich. I also fully expect you to make up your own minds.

In a discussion today at Bitch. Ph.D., another commenter mentioned that she’d “love” to vote for Kucinich but was planning to vote for Obama. I can’t help feeling some rancor about this approach to voting in the primaries, whenever I hear or read it. I’m seeing a lot of this on the internet, so much that I’m sure if everyone who said this went ahead and voted for Kucinich, he’d have as good a chance as any Democratic candidate in the primaries, as well as in the general election. I blame mainstream media for sending the message that Kucinich isn’t to be taken seriously, and in fact should be ignored. Maybe I’m wrong to let it bother me so much that people seem to act out exactly that message in their voting decisions, but it does bother me. This isn’t some TV soap opera we’re discussing. It’s real life, our real country’s future.

As to the notion that Dennis Kucinich isn’t a serious candidate, I think saying he isn’t serious is meaningless in light of how much energy he’s put into campaigning for the presidency. This isn’t something people do for fun. Resilience and stamina against all odds are qualities I look for in a President, so I take Dennis Kucinich very seriously. This also isn’t your average Joe who flunked civics and decided on a whim one day that maybe he could become President. This is a multi-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who has spent years in public service, defending the best interests of his constituents and his country. He had the foresight to warn others about involving ourselves in the Iraq War, and has been consistent in his voting record, acting on what he says, refusing to fund that war.

If there’s a place not being serious should enter the discussion, it’s in whether a voter seriously wants the best person possible for the job or wants to give a vote away to whichever candidate appears to be the front runner. We’re not betting on a horse race; we’re electing a U.S. President. It’s also appropriate to discuss how serious the news media is about balanced reporting on an election, when they don’t cover all the candidates and their positions on the issues equally — right up until the voters have made a final decision. That hasn’t been serious in this election, or in lots of past elections. It’s also appropriate to ask how serious candidates are who won’t take a firm position on some issues, or who claim to be against the war but either voted for it in the beginning or continue to help fund it with their votes. So please don’t let anyone tell you Dennis Kucinich isn’t a serious candidate. Set them straight. Ask where the serious voters are, where the serious journalism is, where the other serious candidates are; and vote your convictions.

Here’s an excerpt from a transcript of a Paul Jay interview with Rep. Dennis Kucinich on The REAL News Network, titled What makes Dennis run? In it, Kucinich talks about the power of our votes and why voting for the perceived sure thing rather than for him isn’t the best use of your precious primary vote:

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: I’ve heard this a thousand times, talking to potential Democratic Party voters, particularly people who identify themselves as progressive. I agree with Dennis Kucinich, but he can’t win, and I’m going to vote for Edwards, I’m going to vote for Obama. And not very often is Hillary Clinton’s name mentioned. You hear that in progressive blogs. You hear it even in progressive magazines and publications. What do you say to them?

DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, when people decide that they really want to win—this isn’t about which candidate wins. Yes, the winner may go on to be president. But the question is what do you win if you’re for a not-for-profit health care system, and you’re instrumental in electing someone who isn’t? What do you win if you are for getting out of Iraq immediately, and you’re instrumental in electing someone who doesn’t want to do that? And so you see the direction this goes in. This isn’t just about me. People have to have the courage of their convictions. We can have the world we want if we vote for the world we want. If we vote for something other than what we want just on the basis of somebody looks like they might be winning, then we’re not even making our own decisions. (read interview)

What do you want to win with your vote?

Because I believe in what I see as a principled and courageous approach, and how Rep. Dennis Kucinich stands by what he says and follows through with his actions, I can’t urge anyone strongly enough to suit me, to vote for Kucinich in the primaries. At least listen carefully and seriously to what he has to say, and consider what your vote stands for and how you want to wield it.

You might also want to read what Amy Goodman has to say in her opinion piece in The Salt Lake Tribune about mainstream media and what they get out of engineering what viewers see of this election campaign: Broadcasters see billion-dollar campaign windfall. Stop letting mainstream media tell you how to vote, which they’ve done by excluding some candidates from their reporting since well before the primaries began.