George Graham

Say Goodbye to Kucinich’s America

In an email to supporters, Dennis Kucinich (photo above) announced this week that he will not try to get re-elected to Congress. His Ohio district was erased in a political maneuver, and he was thinking of running for a seat in some faraway state like Washington or Oregon. But apparently that’s out.

Here’s what he had to say:

After careful consideration and discussions with Elizabeth and my closest friends, I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress. My commitments to peace, to workers’ rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office. They are dependent upon my continuing to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to motivate and to inspire our nation as to its deeper potential. This I promise I will do with great energy and heart.

With Kucinich leaving Congress, America has lost a vluable voice for justice and decency. And I bet it won’t be long before Bernie Sanders calls it quits. America has moved so far right in recent years that politicians like Kucinich and Sanders are an endangered species. Remember how the right muscled Orlando’s Alan Grayson to the sidelines? Grayson is trying to make a comeback in November but he faces a massive assault from a filthy-rich conservative brigade.

I am amazed – and disappointed – at the power of the almighty dollar. With malice aforethought, right-wing activists launched a crusade back in the Seventies to reverse the liberalism that had become popular in America. They funded think tanks and university departments, bought up the airwaves to dominate talk radio, coopted and/or intimidated the mainstream media, and formed an unholy alliance with the religion industry.

Naturally, the global power elite was only too eager to fund this mission to capture America’s soul.

After decades of the relentless campaign, American voters are overwhelmingly anti-liberal – except in California, New York City and the Northeast.  And even in those former bastions of liberalism, cracks have begun to appear.  When someone like Scott Brown can occupy the Massachusetts seat once held by Ted Kennedy, you know things have changed drastically.

Now, there is hardly a whisper of liberalism to be heard in the  forums of the nation.  The United States has been so indoctrinated by the conservative propaganda machine that President Obama, who is actually to the right of Republican Dwight Eisnehower, is considered a Socialist.

Today, Barry Goldwater, who wanted to drop an A-bomb on North Vietnam, would be a “moderate.” And he would probably face stiff opposition in his primary from some T-Party oppponent. After all, his wife was a founder of Planned Parenthood.

With Keith Olbermann apparently silenced, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schulz  are among the few public voices that still provide a left-of-center perspective on political events. Most commentators (Chris Matthews and Jack Cafferty, for example) bend themselves into pretzels trying to look “fair” while Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the right-wing noise machine flood the airwaves with manufactured facts and false logic developed by professional public relations consultants.

Money talks. You hear it on radio and television, and see it on the Internet. And the big money is solidly behind the conservative movement. Both houses of Congress are apparently in the pockets of corporate millionaires. Even the Supreme Court seems to be bought and paid for.

So say goodebye to Dennis Kucinich, and say goodbye to Kucinich’s America.  The country he leaves behind is a mockery of the one the Founding Fathers envisaged when they shook off the shackles of imperialism.

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com

3 Comments

  • I thought we might be at End of Days when Dubya and Cheney stole the election in 2000. Those were 8 horrifying years, and to me there were far more frightening and evil things going on than now. We’re in clover by comparison. Can you imagine having to relive those days of flag-waving and fear mongering? We’ll be okay when Obama realizes he can’t slay all the Hydra heads at once.

  • Thank you, Bill. That is a comforting thought. Those were 8 horrifying years. I often wonder what would have happened had Al Gore been president, as he had every right to be. Yes, George, you are having a bad day. Terrifying things are happening to our earth, but as we look back, hasn’t it always been so? It does seem as if the old earth is taking an unusually tragic beating, however.

  • Thanks to Bill and Sandra as they seem hopeful. I feel more like you George except it feels like more than a bad day to me.