queerbychoice | U.S. Democratic Primary: My Endorsement

Current Mood: DENNIS KUCINICH 2004
Current Music: I do not like you, Howard Dean.

U.S. Democratic Primary: My Endorsement

Everyone on my LJ friends list has been enthusiastically supporting either Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, or no one whatsoever. I did hear two voices raised in extremely quiet, tentative support of Carol Moseley-Braun the day she dropped out of the race, but I heard no support whatsoever for anybody who's actually still in the race except for Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been one of those who has no enthusiasm for any of them. I haven't picked a candidate to support because, frankly, I found the whole lot of them disappointing. However, receiving my ballot in the mail a few days ago has brought home to me the necessity of picking one anyway. (Yes, I know I could just not vote at all, but then my views would be easily dismissed as "too lazy to bother voting," and it's important to me for the candidates to know that I did bother voting and simply found them inadequate.) So I took the quiz at Vote by Issue.org to help me decide: the quiz gives you statements by all the candidates but removes the candidates' names, and makes you pick a favorite just based on the words they said, without knowing who said what.

Anyway, on the completely overwhelming majority of issues, I picked Dennis Kucinich as my favorite. I didn't pick Howard Dean as my favorite on anything whatsoever, nor is he anywhere near my second favorite in most categories, whereas Kucinich is my second favorite in most of the issues where he wasn't my very favorite. All of which is to say: I'm pretty sure I've finally decided who to vote for. Was anyone waiting anxiously to find out which candidate the all-important Gayle Madwin endorsement would go to? Probably not. But nonetheless: I am now officially endorsing Dennis Kucinich. I have made my decision at last.

Naturally, Howard Dean's biggest fangirl

frankepi will be immensely annoyed at me for that, and will repeat to me the major argument that Howard Dean's supporters seem to use against Dennis Kucinich's: that Dennis Kucinich "isn't electable." Yeah, well, that's the exact same argument that the Al Gore people used against you Ralph Nader voters in the 2000 election, and it didn't impress you then, did it? It doesn't impress me now either. The only way that the Democratic Party can be swayed to the left is if the left-wing voters refuse to vote for Democratic candidates who are annoyingly far to the right - which, despite all his noisy posturing and claims to the contrary, Howard Dean's actual record as governor of Vermont, and even most of his concrete policy positions voiced during the current campaign, indicate to me that he is.

I also found the website Why I'm Voting for Kucinich Over Dean to be very much to the point.

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Yeah, well, that's the exact same argument that the Al Gore people used against you Ralph Nader voters in the 2000 election, and it didn't impress you then, did it? It doesn't impress me now either. The only way that the Democratic Party can be swayed to the left is if the left-wing voters refuse to vote for Democratic candidates who are annoyingly far to the right

Thank you.

But then, I shouldn't even talk, because since Carol Moseley-Braun dropped out, I've basically acquiesced to the point where I'm so terrified of Bush that I will, in the end, support the person who gets the nomination. Which is strongly against my values. It's a conundrum. It looked like it was going to be Dean for a while, but now it looks like it's going to be Kerry, and... I have no idea. There are only a few of them I really dislike strongly, and the rest… gah. This is why I was trying not to hate Bush with such vengeance!

Kucinich's idealism is amazing. I worry that he will get "Jimmy Cartered." (And that’s a judgement Washington, not Carter.)

(I would like to say, though, that I was pretty adamant in my support for Moseley-Braun (http://www.livejournal.com/users/theobscure/122572.html) before she dropped out, which was pretty decisive for me, considering how long it took me to find a candidate I liked.)

I'm very worried about this country. :/

Interesting - I think I'd gotten so used to the idea that nobody on my friends list supported anyone other than Dean and Kucinich that my brain was just totally unable to process your support for Moseley-Braun until after she dropped out.

"I've basically acquiesced to the point where I'm so terrified of Bush that I will, in the end, support the person who gets the nomination. Which is strongly against my values."

Yeah, in this situation even I can understand doing that in the final election - there's just no way that I'm going to go so far as to do it in the Democratic primary too. There has to be somewhere for us to express our actual opinions!

i of course have a lot to say about this, but i'll save it for the inevitable political post in my own journal.

Kucinich's lack of "electability" plays little role in why i don't like them. his proposals for Iraq are dangerous, his economic proposals completely bizarre and his shrill, devisive, isolationist tone just plain irritating. his politically expedient shift of position re: abortion doesn't sit well me either.

"electability" is a silly idea in a primary. any of these guys is electable vs. Bush. Bush is going to lose.

p.s. i can't even VOTE in the primary as i'm not registered with a party.

"Shrill" is a very telling word to use as an insult. What does it mean exactly? That his voice isn't as deep and masculine as you'd like? That he speaks in a tone that clearly reveals him to be annoyed at the current state of the nation? Ooh, terrible crimes there.

And for a Howard Dean supporter to complain about another candidate's "politically expedient shift of position" is beyond ridiculous.

Well, it was only a small reference, not an official endorsement so it's easy to pass over. ;) I'm always less vocal about things I support over things I hate, I think, because I'm so worried that they will end up disappointing me. :x But, yeah. I was so happy with her when I settled on her that I'm still recovering from her withdrawal. Which, for me, is pretty decisive.

By the way, you don't happen to know when and where the version of "1984" on the David Live album was recorded, do you? (It's not terribly important, I'm just using a song from it and I don't have any of that information.)

I admit to not knowing enough about some of the "smaller" candidate's issues--smaller in that less press coverage is given to them than Kerry, Dean, and Clark--but Kucinich is very agreeable, and when I took that test I was equally split between Kucinich and Kerry.

As it is, I support Kerry for the superficial reasons of his home state being my favorite, and his general platform being the most 'electable' of all the candidates--even though I agree that it's not a good idea to consider for a personal judgment, I think it's important that the Democratic nominee have a very strong chance of winning over these inexplicable republicans. Heh.

One thing I found frustrating, especially with the website, was that so many of the candidate-position blurbs, even the extended blurbs, were so similar! This is more a fault of the candidate than the site, of course, but it was hard to choose between two or three identical-sounding statements.

What about a Kucinich/____ ticket? Do you think the position of VP candidate holds any sway on voters, and if so who would you select for it?

According to this, it was recorded at the Tower, Philadelphia on July 11th and 12th, 1974. :)

Thank you! I probably should have looked it up myself, actually but I have such a wonderful David Bowie resource in you, and I couldn't resist asking...

(xoxo)

Well, I came out all over the map, favoring Dean and Kucinich only faintly. There wasn't a single candidate I disagreed with on every issue, even the much loathed Lieberman.

But all in all, even though he only gave me one point, I think I'm voting for Sharpton, if given the option. He may be loony, and I may not agree with everything he says, but he'd definitely shake up the country, and I'm in favor of that.

Besides, there wasn't a single question on the only issue (drugs) I feel strongly about...

I love the idea of a quiz to help decide who to vote for. Seeing as my take on British politics is currently "I hate you. And you. And you. As for you, Mr Blair... Words fail me!", I think it would be very useful!

I've lost you already, huh?

Americans.

So fickle.

;)

We owe Kucinich for pulling the debate to the left. Had he not been in the race, Dean (as the leftiest of the other white male [thus "serious"] candidates) would have been the kook, the joke, the one the mass media dismissed for us from the start. And even Kerry wouldn't be as far to the left in his current rhetoric as he is.

Voting for Kucinich in the primaries/caucusses seems to me to be a great way to do the same thing: pull the middle to the left. And, now that Kerry is practically on cruise control, the vote won't likely do much for who the nominee is, so the worry about Bush beating Kucinich is moot. But it will put more progressive delegates at the convention.

Not that I have great delusions about the Democrats being the party of the people. Both big parties are parties of the corporatocracy. But, until Diebold helps secure the utter ruination of our voting system, at least we can still peep up in our little ways.

I'm with you,

queerbychoice.

i feel that voting out of passion rather than fear is very important.

the last election was al gore's to lose and it wasn't nader's fault at all. if al gore was a strong enough candidate, the election would not have been as close as it was, the GOP would not have been able to steal it away.

voting for third party candidates is also important. letting the two dominant parties know that enough americans want third parties to have a voice in the government (by giving votes to these third party candidates) will twist their arms into doing just that. but a significant group of us must be willing to take a stand in that direction.

I like what Kucinich says now, very much. I do think he's electable. As he said in the debates, "I'm electable if you vote for me."

However, about seven years ago, nearly all of his "guiding principles" were different. He wasn't a vegan, he was pro-life, and he wasn't active in equality for homosexuals.

That scares me.

Much the same thing is true of the other candidates too, though. Besides, if he didn't believe what he's saying, he'd obviously stand to benefit and get more votes by shifting his political position to the right. That he hasn't done so is important.

Also check out this article on his willingness 25 years ago to sacrifice his political career by taking unpopular stances he believed in.

Aw, c'mon...smile, dammit. :D

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

:p

Well thank you :D

Everyone on my LJ friends list has been enthusiastically supporting either Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, or no one whatsoever.

Moseley-Braun was my idealistic choice, although I figured she dropped out. Otherwise, I switched from half-hearted Dean supporter to slightly less half-hearted Clark supporter, on the rather mercenary counts of electibility and me not completely despising them (although Dean makes me extremely uncomfortable for some reason).

Kucinich is fine, but -- well, I suppose I could vote my conscience in the primary, given that I vote in a state that barely counts for the primaries. But since the primary determines the candidate in the actual election, in the current situation I'd rather not see the preferred Dem get chosen in the primary and then go down like a lead ballon in the real election because the Republicans all hate him. The primary isn't completely removed from the real election, and I can't bring myself to vote like it is.

I was surprised when I took a couple quiz things to come up kucinich. I hadn't really given him much thought. I was too busy laughing at the whole proceedings.

I was too scared of Bush in the last election to think of voting in any way other than "against Bush in whatever way is most likely to help keep him out of office." This election? I'm almost freaked enough to vote against conscious in the primary if it seems like it could possibly help keep Bush out of office.

hey, i know this has nothing to do with your post :-p
but i am having issues and i think/hope you can help.
hehe.
ok, so one of my friends, who i have always known is gay, has just recently decided to be straight. He says that it's wrong, and he says all these other things...like, he feels dirty when he has sex with a guy and he feels he's disappointing people and all that. never has he said that he doesn't feel homosexual, but he's just not going to be it. I feel...alienated, and betrayed,...and hypocritical. I mean, i agree with you and all the queer by choice stuff and i think you can choose to be queer, but i don't think i feel that it goes the other way. i know you kinda addressed it on your website, but not really that much, so i was wondering what your opinion is and maybe you can help me get over this :)

Merci beacoup,
Marielle

PS. wishing that it is a phase and will end soon feels so...mean.

hehehe ooooh i love your icon. 10 things, definetely my favorite (shh) teen movie. :-D I memorized the whole thing, at one point.

marielle

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U.S. Democratic Primary: My Endorsement

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the two party system

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