Vote Dennis Kucinich.

[fflo]

I'm all for humor, and for messing up Republicans, as people are suggesting, but why not convert frustration over how the (state & nat'l) Dems have loused up our primary by voting for Dennis Kucinich? I just had a second date with him (along with 500 or more, this time), and then had to hear NPR, as I drove back to the office, say the only way people voting in the Democratic primary in Michigan can vote "against Hillary" is to vote for "Uncommitted." Fie on NPR! And *shame* on them, as ostensibly public media people, not even mentioning the name of the one Democrat actually campaigning in the state---who also happens to be the only one we could decidedly count on, among other things, to protect public access to media.

Don't be telling me he's not a major candidate. He's not a major candidate, at this point, only if/because people believe the media telling us he's not a major candidate, suggesting that savvy people know it's gotta be one of 3, or maybe 2. After Iowa they wanted to say it was pretty much only 1! And this time you'd be harder pressed (than with, say, Nader a few years ago in the general election) to make a case that voting for a long shot here messes up anything else.

Seems to me by far most people I know who've done one of those candidate match questionnaires come up with Dennis at the top, or at least near it. If that's you, and you're in Michigan, why not vote for him tomorrow? If there's ever been a time we have the luxury of voting on principle and sending a message, this is it.

Yes, I know it's almost certainly not going to be a very resounding message. But let me put you in mind of one of my favorite political writers, Dr. Seuss, and of Horton the elephant, and of the Whos on that dust speck, and how those little people were trying to make a noise. And then they find one little Who who hadn't been peeping up, and they hold that little one up to the firmament, and after (my favorite moment as a kid, in which) the little Who ponders aloud "Shall I give a yip or a yap?", that little one adds that little voice and it means something.

Sometimes you have to pretend it could mean something. You just have to. Most ya'll don't know this, but I'm a far sight more cynical than almost the whole lot of ya. I really am. But I'm gonna go do this thing tomorrow, on principle, and I really hope you'll consider doing it too. If you don't have something else firmly in mind, and it's all the same to you, and ---

Look, I'll give you a dollar if you'll go vote Dennis. On your honor, if you do, tomorrow in Michigan, and you weren't gonna anyway, one dollar U.S. currency will be coming to you, if you just say the word. Or, if you'd prefer, I'll send you a postcard, handpicked for your sweet Dennis-voting-for self. Just email me your address at fflo at livejournal.com.

He's not just the candidate for peace. He's the candidate for the people, vs. corporate power and the continuing consolidation of wealth into fewer hands. He's the candidate for the queers, too, you queers and queer advocates. He's the candidate for universal health care. He's the candidate for real, broad civil rights, for privacy rights, and for internet neutrality. For small business and family farms. For alternative energy. For broad access to education, and for the restoration of funding for the arts in schools. For election reform; for media responsibility. And he's the candidate for saving the U.S. from the ignominy we have fallen into internationally (and deserve), and for possibly pulling us back from the path toward a karmic fate we will most assuredly regret, with all there is left of us.

Listen, I don't want to believe the big-money media manipulate us, either. But that's cuz I don't want it to be true. Let's face it: it IS true. So we might as well look it in the face. So they'll laugh off my vote, and the others, if they even note them at all. At least I will have voted for what I believe in. Please, if you agree with what this guy's saying, vote for him. C'mon. That's not crazy. It may well turn out to have been largely pointless in terms of its practical effect on the election, but it's the right thing to do, and even if that doesn't mean anything, I want to pretend, for a day, tomorrow, that it does.

Comments

[disclaimerwill.livejournal.com]

What a great post. Thanks for brightening my evening with it. It makes me want to go back and watch The War Room again. I want to believe in our political process again. (Especially since season four of The Wire has pretty much snuffed that belief out entirely...)

I'd vote for him tomorrow if I still lived there.

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

i wish i could. technically speaking i can't, but there was all that talk about how noone ever checks id. but i don't have a registration card either, and for that you might need to have some things sorted out. :)

[bigfinedaddy.livejournal.com]

Well, you sure were right about my results. Maybe I could use an extra dollar.....

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

He was disarmingly, dryly funny when I saw him on Stephen Colbert. I guess it's obnoxious to bring a comment like that to a discussion of the guy's political chops, but I confess he charmed my socks off.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

not obnoxious at all, cranky!

i do think it obnoxious when people, in dismissing him, say "he saw a UFO!" or (as some guys i caught on cable while dogsitting the other day did) reference his wife's tongue piercing, as if that sums up anything salient.

check out this online op ed

[fflo.livejournal.com]

vote & say the woid, BFD!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

even before you had to start showing i.d., you had to be on the rolls. on the lists of registered voters. you show up at your local polling place & say "that's me" and then they note that you've voted. so in theory you couldn't vote twice.

i mentioned my objection to i.d. showing this morning and got into a little discussion of it with some woman who thought it a good idea, helping prevent fraud, keeping people (like scary illegal aliens) from cheating us out of officials elected purely by real registered americans with govt-issued i.d.s who play by the rules.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

thanks, chris willie.

i'm about to get disc 2 of the first season of The Wire. shouldn'ta put on the commentary track on one episode on the first disc. i had a cat in my lap after watching the last episode, so, you know, thought i'd see what else was on there. voiceover guy was dripping with appreciation for how very great their whole everything was. major turn-off.

but i love looking at the streets of baltimore, so i'm gonna hang in there with it for a while. and stay away from commentary.

[disclaimerwill.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched any of the commentary tracks for the series. Good to know I'm not missing much.

Yes, do hang in there, because... it's really super-awesome. :)

[fflo.livejournal.com]

and there's a tough lesbian!

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

in the land of one's people you always have to show id. that's because various dead people are on the lists and because the voting is all on paper and fraud is rampant. so i'm not surprised it's required, although i'd be on the other end of the suspicion over here. :)

how was the location? they were saying on npr the turnout expectations were minuscule.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

i was #45 to vote, and that was around 9:45 in the morning. not real good. plus the ballot-counting machine jammed 2 ballots before mine, so we had to put ours in the "EMERGENCY BALLOT BIN" (through a slot in the side) & hear them plop to the bottom. the poll workers were calling to try to get the thing fixed. assured us ours'd count. the woman before me was totally voting Hillary, i'm sure of it.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

you can go with me next time if you want. didn't we talk of that once? a field trip to the vaunted process, grassroots level?

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

that's what that bore said on saturday, those two exact things. i couldn't be bothered to engage so i only said "that's unfortunate."

[fflo.livejournal.com]

has a TV, does he?

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

i can't believe how common this kind of technical problem is. how's that possible? every other stupid machine works fine, but not this one???

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

we should think about it. i'm trying to think what the next opportunity might be. i do hope not to be here for the presidential election. :) the foul mood is catching up with me, though, for some reason (hormonal perhaps).

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

probably. wasn't even intrigued enough to ask that much. jesus what a waste.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

i guess they'd fed 40-ish pieces of paper into it before something messed it up. maybe it was a saboteur, putting sticky stuff on his/hers. with this kind of optical scan machine you feed the ballot in yourself, ordinarily, after they tear a stub off the top.

maybe the tear left a crooked edge, and the feed-in went too sideways.

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

that's interesting. so is this like a scantron? it doesn't strike me as the most complex piece of machinery ever invented, not to mention that any piece of machinery invented for this occasion should be impeccably reliable and not a piece of shit that constantly breaks.

but i guess that's the kind of detail from which you can tell how much they care.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

beats the touch screen scam system. there are paper ballots, so handcount/recount is possible.

unless they get eaten by the machine, i guess.

but, yeah, scantronish.

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

true enough. the screen thing was a major scam. but you'd think that they could figure out a way to create a piece of paper that tears into two easily. i'm sure the credit card companies could help.

[dreampower.livejournal.com]

I voted for him. I decided he was the best choice. I'm so tired to people always saying I like so and so, but he can't win. Everyone says that practically. I wish people would vote for who they wanted in the primarys and maybe politics would end up so dreadful.

[dreampower.livejournal.com]

that's supposed to be, wouldn't end up so dreadful

[fflo.livejournal.com]

gotcha. and agree!