by MARGARET KIMBERLEY
If America were a democracy in the truest sense of the word, our political representatives would in fact represent our interests. They would fight for public education and against wars. We would have single payer health care and affordable housing. Banks would not be permitted to devastate our communities with red lining or foreclosures and the top 1% wouldn’t be allowed to create bubble economies which create havoc around the world.
But our country is a democracy in name only. We do get to cast our votes periodically, but anyone who does want to represent the interests of the people is not tolerated by this system.
Dennis Kucinich is such a person. His eight terms in congress will end this year because he was not tolerated by the rulers. Kucinich’s congressional career ended because of the time honored yet often corrupt process of gerrymandering districts. Electoral district lines are redrawn every ten years based on census data, and because the state of Ohio lost population, it also lost congressional seats.
The Ohio rulers in the Republican-run state legislature decided to redraw lines which pitted two Democratic incumbents, Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur, against one another. The new district was mostly made up of Kaptur’s old district, and Kucinich was defeated in the primary election.
“Anyone who wants to represent the interests of the people is not tolerated by this system.”
The corporate media and their pundits were always quick to dismiss Kucinich, and wasted no time in kicking him now that he is down and out. Called crazy or wacky, Kucinich is nothing more than what other Democrats ought to be. He represents the interests of most Americans, and calls out the powerful for their abuse.
The rightward shift in American politics puts anyone who truly believes in democracy on the outs. When Kucinich sponsored articles of impeachment against George W. Bush, his effort was righteous but doomed, and doomed by his own.
His fellow Democrats couldn’t get behind him because some of them were collaborators with the Bush regime. Then Speaker Nancy Pelosi couldn’t support articles of impeachment which charged Bush with the crime of torture because she was briefed on and tacitly supported the practice. It is but one example of why Kucinich’s political career was also doomed, and why he finally was unable to dodge that last bullet.
Dennis Kucinich stood up when no one else would. In 2006, when the first reports surfaced indicating a death toll of 1 million Iraqis at the hands of the United States, it was Kucinich, alone among members of congress, who demanded answers. Not one other member of Congress, not from the Progressive Caucus, or the Congressional Black Caucus joined him. It is that kind of bravery which finally cost him his political career.
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