Voters must keep focus on platforms, not numbers

By Jane Shevtsov

I wish I had a buck for every time I’ve heard somebody
say, “I love what Dennis Kucinich stands for, but he
can’t win, so I’m voting for Dean or Clark.” Even
better, I wish Kucinich had a vote for each time somebody said that
““ he’d be the front-runner.

Kucinich is a progressive in the full sense of the word. He
would repeal the Patriot Act and has a 10-point plan to get U.S.
troops out of Iraq within 90 days of a U.N. resolution accepting
the plan. His best-known proposal is for a Cabinet-level Department
of Peace ““ an idea that appears eminently logical when one
remembers that the original name of the Department of Defense was
the Department of War.

(In 1793, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, published a proposal for such a department and wrote,
“As the War-Office of the United States was established in
the time of peace, it is equally reasonable that a Peace-Office
should be established in the time of war.”)

Many progressives are so scared of another four years of
President Bush, they will vote for anyone they think other people
will vote for. This may be a defensible position for the
presidential race itself, but we are in the primaries. If you are a
registered Democrat or Independent, you can vote in the California
Democratic primary. (If you’re independent, you’ll have
to ask for a Democratic ballot.) Your vote decides who is
electable.

If you think Kucinich can get the Democratic nomination but
won’t be able to beat Bush, remember Truman’s
observation, “When voters are given a choice between voting
for a Republican, or a Democrat who acts like a Republican,
they’ll vote for the Republican every time.” Kucinich
may well have a better chance than somebody more centrist.

On the other hand, you, like most people, might not think
Kucinich can win the nomination, although he finished third in the
Maine and Washington primaries. But you have nothing to lose in
voting for him unless you really hate one of the other Democratic
candidates who could win because of your vote. But you do have
something to gain ““ the peace of mind that comes from acting
on your conscience and doing something, however small, to move
history in the direction of your dreams by registering which ideas
have your support.

Before choosing a candidate, ask yourself a few questions. Are
you for a swift end to the Iraq war or an indefinitely prolonged
U.S. occupation? A slightly less dirty environment or massive
investment in renewable energy and a ban on logging on public
lands? A complicated health care proposal that will still let
millions slip through the cracks or a simple one that covers
everybody for less than what we pay now? Is your vision limited to
a world you hope won’t kill you or can you see one that will
allow all of us to thrive?

Rachel Carson, writing more than 40 years ago, might well have
been describing the 2004 election when she asked, “Have we
fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable
that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the
will or the vision to demand that which is good?”

The simple truth about elections is the person with the most
votes wins. Nothing else ““ not campaign contributions,
endorsements or the approval of the punditry ““ matters in the
end. “I love Kucinich but he can’t win” comes out
of the same fear that allowed the Bush administration to restrict
our fundamental liberties and drag us into a war based on
falsehoods.

What if we forgot to be scared? What if we worked from a sense
of what is most important to us, what resonates most deeply in our
hearts? What if we put our energies toward creating the kind of
world we truly want to live in? Dennis Kucinich’s campaign
theme is: “Fear ends, hope begins.” He is the candidate
for those of us who pledge allegiance not only to America and the
present but to the whole world and its future.

Supporting such a candidate takes courage. It takes an ability
to knowingly take on risk — both the risk of political defeat and
the risk of having hopes shattered. But nothing short of this
courage is adequate for the perils of our time.

Shevtsov is a third-year ecology, behavior and evolution
student. Shevtsov volunteers as a research assistant for the
Kucinich campaign’s national issues team.