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Kucinich Ousted. Bad Day for True Liberals
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Quixotic Democrat who was my personal choice for President both times he ran unsuccessfully for the nomination, got trounced in a Democratic primary yesterday. The political career of the fiercely consistent pro-peace Kucinich is probably over, at least as far as elected office is concerned. I am saddened by this turn of events and both the party and the nation are worse off because of it.
Kucinich founded a movement attempting to get Congress to establish a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, a feat achieved by a number of other Western democracies but notably resisted in these constant war-footing times in the U.S. He was a constant and consistent voice against fighting unnecessary foreign wars. His voice will soon no longer be heard in the debates over new wars such as the one President Obama seems hell-bent on dragging us into in Iran.
The Republicans engineered his defeat as sure as if they'd backed a crossover pseudo-candidate. They combined the key portions of his Ohio district with those of a Democratic colleague Marcy Kaptur, who ran a bit of a nasty campaign against her former colleague. That approach will also have damaged the Democratic Party in Ohio, though certainly not fatally.
I hope Kucinich continues his career in unelected politics and finds a platform from which to continue his reminders to the American people of the futility and horrendous cost of foreign adventurism.
NoLabels Makes Eminent Sense
I've recently joined a national movement called NoLabels. This is a non-partisan group with, I think, close to 200,000 grass roots members from across the political spectrum united behind one idea: making Congress work.
The group has proposed a 12-point plan to remove the gridlock and reduce the polarization in the Congress. You can read about the plan here. The 12-point plan, in bullet-point form, calls for:
- Congressmembers' pay stops whenever they are late producing a budget.
- All Presidential appointments get a straight up-or-down vote within 90 days.
- Filibusters are confined to bills only, not to motions to consider bills, and filibusterers must maintain a physical presence onj the floor throughout.
- Make it easier for a bipartisan majority to bring legislation to the House or Senate floor without committee overrule.
- Make Congress work three weeks of the month rather than two or fewer as is now the case.
- Schedule regular question time for the President in front of the Congress, a la Britain.
- Annual fiscal updates to Congress from a nonpartisan leader, with senior Congresspeople being required to sign it off.
- Congresspeople should be banned from taking any pledge other than their Oath of Office and the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Mandated monthly bipartisan gatherings.
- Bipartisan seating, with party members seated with members of the other party rather than being segregated.
- Congressional leaders should form a bipartisan congressional leadership committee.
- Incumbents should be banned from waging negative political campaigns against incumbents from the opposing party.
Not all of these ideas are great. Some of them may even seem silly but they do seem symbolic. If we could get Congress to adopt even half of these principles, it would go a long way toward making Congress work.
As you can see, there's no partisanship in any of the proposals. Won't you join me and spread the word about this worthwhile undertaking and sign up to help the cause? Regardless of who wins the November elections, we need a Congress that actually functions.
