Who am I? Why am I here?
"Dennis, honestly, did any good come out of your campaign for the presidency?" I hate this question. I hate it because I'm an honest man and when I'm asked it -- as I am every now and then -- I'm forced to answer honestly, and to my embarrassment the answer is no. I came to this conclusion immediately, just after the returns were in on Nov. 2. There I was at the I asked myself this question. "No, old fellow, not a bit a good came of it," I was forced to admit, and I determined then to find a better way.
And that brings me to another question I've been getting with some frequency over the past couple days, in response to my intensely personal posts on this blog: "Dennis, why are you doing this? Why are you writing about yourself so casually, with so little regard for how it sounds, for how it will play?" Why am I blogging?
I'll tell you why: Because Americans need to know who I am. In the past two years we saw virtually unknown people and candidates -- the folks who run the fine blog DailyKos, or the pundit at Instapundit, or the foul-mouthed guilty pleasure Wonkette, and even my old, misguided rival Howard Dean -- become national sensations on the strength of their witticisms online. They sold themselves to the people on the Web, and thanks to that they managed to effect actual political change. Markos of Daily Kos was even invited to the Democrats' convention, which is more than I can say for myself!
So that's why I blog. The American people are not in love with our president, even if they reelected him. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the American people love very few people -- there's Bill Cosby, there's Ray Romano, there's 50 Cent, Warren Buffet, there's Colin Powell, there's John McCain, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and Mohammed Ali and Eminen , and at the head of the class there's Oprah. How did these people do it? How do they manage to seduce us, to intrigue us, to disarm us, to get us to trust them?
8 Comments:
Keep up the good work. America does need you.
Dee Jay Kay.....I gladly sent you a few bucks and got a glimpse of what politics could be like in a better world. We can create that world in our consciousness. We can change the world a few people at a time. Our enlightened society is budding. As like minds link up we can grow our chi and infuse the world mind with greater knowing. Glad to find your blog. Carry on brother from another mother....
Dennis (may I call you Dennis?), your candidacy SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO mattered!
Had it been up to me to pick the person who will be sworn in as president of the United States later this month (like it was up to the U.S. Supreme Court to pick the person who was sworn in four years ago), it would have been you. You were -- you remain -- my ideological favorite of the contenders for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
You especially kicked ass during the NPR debate among the Democratic presidential contenders. I was blown away at how you melded sound intellectual discussion with sound spiritual principles. While the others bickered about the particulars of their policy plans, you soared above the fray and you shined.
However, about half of the citizens of the United States of America are abject morons, as evidenced by the percentage who cast their vote for George W. Bush. Your brilliance is entirely lost on these people.
I supported John Kerry from the very beginning not because he was my ideological ideal, but because I believed (still believed) that, politically/strategically, he was the candidate who could best take on Bush, and Bush removal was my prime consideration, as was millions'. (That said, I do think that Kerry would have made a fine president.)
Dennis, you were up against astronomical odds. You are a U.S. representative, and few, if any, representatives have ever been elected president, unless my history is incorrect. Your surname is not easily pronounced or spelled. (Unfortunately, relatively little things like that matter in political campaigns.) Your largest crime, however, was (is) being not just an intellectual, but a highly spiritual individual among a nation whose citizenry (at least half of it, anyway) is anti-intellectual and against true spirituality (which would include not fabricating wars that result in the deaths of thousands of innocent people for the war-profiteering of the few).
You cast pearls before a nation that is comprised largely of swine.
Not all of us are swine, however, and many of us appreciate your efforts.
Every word that you publicly speak or write matters; everything that you do matters! The Universe records it forever. Know that.
Dennis,
Your run for the Presidency meant more than you may realize. Your willingness to stand up for me gave me the courage to stand up for something without reservation...for you.
I would like to tell you a story from the Caucus in Bellevue, Washington. I had never Caucused before because, well, there was never a candidate like you. As a 29 year old software entrepreneur, I can't tell you how happy I was when a 19 year old "hippy-chick" joined my precinct...and joined me in standing up for you. I have to tell you, my new friend had a three-ring binder full of Dennis Kucinich press clippings (as well as signs, buttons, and stickers).
Our enthusiasm for you and your platform left little doubt in our minds that we would persuade our entire Precinct to support you. There must have been 500 people there, and when they gave us the opportunity to speak in front of the group, my new friend and I didn't hesitate. What we didn't expect at the time is that 3/4 of the speakers in that line were there to passionately support you!
When it came time to vote, only 2 of the 23 in my Precinct initially voted for you. In Washington, I'm sure you know that the caucus votes don't count unless a candidate reaches 15%. Therefore, because our 2 votes weren't going to count, the others assumed we'd change our votes. I had a different idea: I said we’d find 2 more votes.
So I stood up and asked, "Does anybody here feel like, whether Dennis can win or not, that you'd be willing to vote for him just to help get his message out and influence the platform?" No response. I asked again. No response. I asked one last time several minutes later. A woman standing at the end of the table said gently, "I will."
"Great, anybody else. We need one more," I responded. That led to a series of discussions...where my hippie-chick friend and I broke off and spoke individually with the undecideds. After 10 minutes of Kerry supports rolling their eyes at us, and after subtle threats that we didn't have anymore time, we finally found that fourth vote.
Our vote counted. It was a very small victory but it was very important to me. That was one of my best memories of 2004.
Thank you for opening yourself up to us as a blogger. Like all bloggers, I'm sure you’re torn between being your honest self and doing what makes sense "politically". But after all, life is too short to hold back who we really are. If you have a couple minutes, you might enjoy my blog as well at www.anotherdreamer.net. You were absolutely an influence behind a few of the songs that I released on my blog, as I wrote them in the midst of your campaign (especially Freedom Fries and War Games on TV).
Thank you Dennis for everything you’ve done. You are an inspiration to me and millions like me.
Dennis,
your efforts made a difference. You mattered.
I am curious, though, to hear more about something you have written. You wrote that Howard Dean is "misguided". I would like to know more about your opinion of Howard.
You got the chance to meet him and speak with him. I am inspired by the both of you. I suspect he might call you misguided as well, and I'd like sometime to hear more from him about his opinion of you. But for now, can you write some more about your experience of Howard Dean? And why you feel his is misguided?
Thanks, Dennis. I love reading your writings so far. Please keep it up!
Love,
Don Overwith
Folks, trust me when I tell you this is NOT Representative Dennis John Kucinich (D-OH). He doesn't have time to post a blog, he tried it while campaigning and couldn't keep it up. He doesn't even post to his own messageboard, so why would he start a blog and tell nobody who relays his message to the people?
Please read these posts and realize this is not Dennis.
I think your campaign was very important because it was the only major candidate to open call for the correct position on Iraq, near immediate withdrawl of US troops.
The only problem was your terrible scheduler, Amy Vossbrink. Frankly she should be fired for her bungling of events, especially near the end of the campaign.
Denny boy, allthough we live in a stereotyped culture where looking like a president is not as important as if you SHOULD be president, I thank you for your campaign. The responses that you recived at the debates and speeches should tell you that you were well recieved and that the base of the left alligns with your type of thought. Here's to hoping you keep plugging along, for i promise many of us will continue to support acctual thinkers, not pollsters, not suits, not corporations posing as canidates (as nader put it). The corporate media might never embrace you but lots of others will, I kept your name alive and in the open in many a conversations out here in the crazy west coast, as the bushsters would put it, and i'm sure many others did. Keep working against the religious war induced faction of the Bush administration and the aquiesence of the democrats.
As madison warned in federalist 10: "...prevailing and incresing distruts of public engagments, and alarm for private rights...must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadintess and injustice with which a factious spirt has tainted our public administrations," disenting views are not a privlidge or a right - they are a neccesity!
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