My Cousin Jamie lives in NYC and wrote the following to her brother Tim, my other cousin:
“Ani’s close & personal with dennis and has supported him since 2003 (at least). i imagine if there’s anything spotty in his past that it’s definitely past, cause i don’t see her wavering on any of those big sticking points. check out his site - http://www.dennis4president.com/about-dennis/ i like everything i’ve read about him and seen of him (including him playing a hand-shaker and dancing during the encore of ‘little plastic castles’ last night) so i’m planning to get more involved and find out more… he’s the only one out there who i really feel represents ME! “
As a guy who loves his family I felt like I had to stick my nose into their conversation. (That’s what us lame ass parent types do… you know?)
A letter to my Cousin the Liberal Voter
(And Brother, aint that most of us on here?)
M’Lady… pour yourself a cup of your fav. tea, have a seat in your favorite chair and get ready for this:
There is no hope.
Dennis Kucinich will never win in ‘08. Nor will anyone who has any real ideas… anyone who is really honest or “connects” with you or I, or anything remotely close the ideals we cherish.
The war will continue and probably spill over into Iran, the environment will go up in flames and society will keep eating all this shit because that’s what we’ve been trained to do.
To become president in 2008, you have to appeal to middle-class white bread America, be in the pocket of upper-class CEO America, and play the same bullshit games that every other politician in the history of this country has played.
If you really want a guy or gal like Dennis Kucinich - someone who actually believes in something, you have to start at the bottom and change the entire system.
Get the lazy bastards who don’t vote to get educated about how bad they’re being fucked every day and get them to go vote. (And not just vote for name recognition… vote for some issues they identify with.) You have to convince the people like my Dad who flatly believe that the whole thing is fucked and his vote won’t make any difference to go vote anyway.
You have to change things like this all the way down to town elections and school board elections. (Do you really believe Henrietta is actually as republican as it looks on a Map? It’s not exactly San Francisco, but come on… it’s not that bad! But nobody votes!) You have to give people some ideas and some candidates that they can believe in for once.
Then after you - rather we - have accomplished all this groundwork, maybe then we’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell at getting something to change in our political system.
… oh and a little campaign finance reform wouldn’t hurt either. Money corrupts and it’s impossible to run if you can’t raise ba-jillions of dollars.
If someone like Dennis Kucinich won I’d cry tears of Joy for the first time in my 8 years of voting.
But then, I hope you already knew all this. So don’t think of this as pissing on your parade…
Honestly, the only people who might make it are going to be John Edwards or Rudy 9/11 Gulliani. When it comes down to it, this country isn’t ready for a woman, a black guy, or a morman. McCain is bat-shit crazy, and the rest of the dems come off like a bunch of weirdos or pussys as far as the general public is concerned. The fringe candidates are probably the most interesting… the Mike Gavels, Ron Pauls (did I just say that?) and such, but they’re just dreaming.
You have two options next Nov. - Vote on party lines for the lesser of two evils in hopes to make a difference slowly over time, or vote for a long shot because at least you’re being honest.
As I reflect on the last 12 years, I’m not sure yet what I’ll do. All I do know is you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck talking to people… getting them and yourself involved. I mean, go ahead and vote however you do, but don’t wait for some ass-hole in Washington to make the world better - get your hands dirty and start a change yourself.
(And as I type that, I’m talking to myself as well…)
Cheers Jamie! Happy Thanksgiving!
