Com. Sawicky writes:
"Sorry, you make a good case, but no can do.
Dean: "Set the nation on the path to a balanced budget, recognizing that we cannot have social or economic justice without a sound fiscal foundation."
http://www.populist.com/03.15.sawicky.html
mbs"
No, I'm sorry Comrade Max because you make un uncharacteristically poor case for Kucinich over Dean. Dean proposes rolling back the entire Bush tax cut and that clearly shifts the burden to the wealthy. Maybe you think, as I know it's tempting for people of our persuasion to think, that the Bush tax cuts are some temporary insanity that will just go away. In fact, the tax cuts are law and just as real as any other law. Moreover, as you know, the President is proposing to remove the sunset clauses on his cuts, deepening the damage going forwards. Maybe you think he doesn't have a majority in both houses who will get rid of those sunset clauses. I do.
Can there be any question in your mind that no matter who is in the White House, there will be very large deficits going forwards for at least the first two-thirds of this century? Can there be any question that the unfunded, forward obligations of the federal government are already enormous? You think budget deficits are good? I guess you'll love 2030. Surely you don't think there is any actual money in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Social Security and Medicare are simply taxes on the young, doomed to dwindle in a rapidly aging nation. I think it is entirely wise to balance the budget and even create budget surpluses in the face of an absolutely certain, future explosion of deficits.
So on taxes, your first priority, Dean is at least as good as Kucinich and in my view more prudent.
On health care, Dean essentially suggests that the federal government should get into the health care insurance BUSINESS and compete with private insurance. Of course government health insurance is virtually inevitable anyway, but Dean's program is plenty large, possibly better than revenue-neutral in the short term and possibly even passable.
But look, you are not going to get me into the position of arguing that Howard Dean is a progressive's dream. Neither is Kucinich for that matter. The most important consideration is that Dean is a good candidate and Kucinich is a lousy one - and I mean that in an objective sense. Running for President isn't an essay contest. Dean has done the work. Dean's supporters have done the work. Kucinich and his supporters have not.
Dean isn't winning the typical Democratic Party beauty contest, you realize. The "judges" hate him. Terry McAuliffe and Bill Clinton hate him. Union leaders have endorsed other candidates over the objections of their membership (I was talking to Boeing machinists today who walked out of the meeting whine the Gephardt endorsement was announced). The press have mocked him all along. Dean's staff, volunteers and supporters have moved his candidacy from a joke in a late-night monologue to the pole position. Why does Kucinich have the right to liberal votes? He's a coat-tailer compared to Dean. He and Sharpton are just out to win the typical auxiliary beauty contest that the left wing throws every cycle. So long as there was nobody viable opposing the DLC, I was proud to vote for last year's auxiliary beauty contest winner, Ralph Nader. This year there is a viable candidate opposed to the DLC and it isn't Kucinich.
If Kucinich and Sharpton were really out to change things they would find a viable candidate and become his advisers or train a viable candidate and shepherd him on his way up. Sharpton and Kucinich aren't saints. You underestimate the ego involved here. A liberal can win in this country but liberals can't whine their way into the White House. Liberals aren't entitled to the White House simply because they have better and fairer policies. Again, running for President isn't an essay contest. Liberals have got to be sharper than the sharpest conservative. Kucinich isn't even the sharpest liberal. Despite best efforts, let's be honest: With $200 million to spend, Karl Rove is probably going to eat Dean for lunch. Kucinich wouldn't even be a snack.
peace,
boddi
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org]On Behalf Of boddhisatva Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 10:14 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] Kucinich? Come on!
[Please note the URLs at the bottom of this]
Hey Comrades,
Did nobody notice that Dean just got the endorsement of IUPAT, a 140,000-member union? Look, saying you are for Kucinich is now the equivalent of saying "I'm a leftist".
And? So what?
Dean is twenty points up on Kerry in New Hampshire and virtually tied with (pro-union, and a good guy, but pro-war) Gephardt in Iowa. Kucinich is not even on the map. I am at the Dean headquarters in Seattle all the time and volunteers are pouring in. It looks like our local unions are ready to endorse Dean. The Kerry office is dark at 3:30 and the Clark people are incompetent. Kucinich got a nice reception on Bainbridge Island the other day. Dean got 10,000 people in Seattle.
Is Kucinich a socialist? No. Is he any of the brands of neo-socialist capitalist system transformers represented here? No. The politics of the people on this list are great and true and totally foreign to the average American. Our beliefs are not even on the menu. But average Americans are VERY familiar with the old time religion of GW Bush and Ayatollah Pat Robertson. They are VERY familiar with the McCarthyism of Ann Coulter, Dick Cheney and Gruppenfuhrer John (Fucking) Ashcroft. They are also very familiar with a Democratic Party cult of pathological right-wing compromise.
Dean may be totally capitalistic, old-school, blue-blood, and politically incorrect on gun control but what he is doing is opposing the two most destructive political cults in America today: right-wing Republicans and the D.L.(fucking)C.. Oh, and by the way, his core goddam constituency is the Internet Left.
Please believe me when I tell you that I have a thousand problems with the damned Dean campaign. PLEASE BELIEVE ME. But I know four things and you know the last one as well as I do:
1) If Dean wins the nomination, Terry (Soft Money, No Principles) McAuliffe loses his job.
2) If Dean wins the presidency, George (Soft Head, Fascist Principles) Bush loses his job.
3) If Dean wins either, the Internet Left won it for him.
4) Dennis Kucinich does not have a chance in hell of winning anything, not because of what he believes but because he is TOO WEAK A CANDIDATE.
I am BEGGING you to go down to your local Dean office. It will make you feel better, just because you are helping these idiots oppose Bush. There is a lot going on and you can have a little fun. Just be forewarned that the people there are so wound up with anti-Bush sentiment that you really can't get much of a conversation going. It's just too emotional for them.
Failing that, at least go to a Dean Meetup on Nov. 5. There are hundreds all over the country and they are little, temporary islands of sanity.
Here is the URL to find one in your area:
Please, comrades, I know your pain. I feel your pain. It's no easier for me to associate with these goddam Democrats than it is for you but this is a unique opportunity. I know so many of you from a decade on these political lists and I know many of you were here years before I was. Finally we are getting just a little taste of the fruits of our Internet agit-prop. I'm not asking you to believe in Dean or compromise your standards. I'm just asking you to take what's yours. You've all helped build this community and now a politician who opposes some of our worst enemies is asking us to help him beat them. If that's a compromise, I think it's a reasonable compromise.
Karl Rove will never stop. Terry McAuliffe will never get principles. We have to get rid of them.
peace,
boddi
p.s. - I am doing volunteer work at a Howard Dean fundraising luncheon tomorrow. I am trying to figure out what to say when I meet Dean and I'd appreciate any help you can give.
p.p.s. - If any of you find that you want to contribute to Dean, I have opened a page on the Dean website. The purpose is to couple leftist donations with leftist admonitions. I can promise you that I will personally hand a message from you to a Dean campaign official with every contribution made through my page.
My page is at: http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1565519
Please critique the corny rhetoric and, once again, please find your local, Nov. 5 meetup at
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