Terri, you write--- in my opinion half correctly:
"This is why we must stand behind a MOVEMENT and not an individual --- even someone who has been mostly on the right side of the issues, like Dennis Kucinich."
I agree 100% with you, "This is why we must stand behind a MOVEMENT and not an individual."
I disagree with you 100% about Dennis Kucinich.
Personally I have had three run ins with him:
First, Kucinich refused to support the D. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday because his racist constituents in Parma, a racist white enclave surrounded by the City of Cleveland would have given him the boot... Kucinich provided no leadership in the struggle against racism.
Second, I was part of a NAACP delegation which he agreed to meet with when racist violence flared over the court ordered busing to end segregation in Parma's Public Schools; after making an appointment with many of us having traveled over six-hundred miles to meet with him--- Kucinich kept us waiting for over four hours and failed to appear... again, no leadership in the struggle against racism--- to the contrary, Kucinich demonstrated cowardice.
Third, I personally asked Kucinich not to participate in the presidential primary forum: "Prez on the Rez" out in California because the management of the casino sponsoring the event, like all the more than 350 casinos in the Indian gaming industry across this country force workers to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws--- Kucinich went right ahead and participated claiming during his presentation to be an advocate for: working people, the victims of racism and the down-trodden.
I have as much compassion for Kucinich as he has demonstrated towards others when it really would have counted.
It is not surprising to me that Kucinich has bowed, again, to the powers that be.
Wall Street is served well by a handful of gad-flies like Kucinich with claims to "populism" when it is politically expedient for them... this supposedly demonstrates to the world that the United States is the greatest bastion of democracy.
We not only need to focus on building movements rather than place confidence in individual candidates because when you think about this, the people in power always want working people to believe there is this or that person who will "help" them... when, in fact, if there are only a handful of "do-gooders" in the entire U.S. House and Senate who pick and choose based upon politically expediency what is good for their own political career, rather than what is good for the people, we are never going to make any headway when it comes to putting this country on a progressive footing and foundation.
Part of building these movements should be that we simultaneously are building a new political party to be the voice of this movement--- without doing this we are like a dog chasing its tail. Such politicians participating in this kind of movement will have to understand that deviating from the progressive agenda established by their grassroots and rank-and-file working class base (with or without the leadership of organized labor which for the most part is even worse than Kucinich when it comes to having the courage to stand up for what is right and just--- will have to understand they will be "primaried out."
Here in Minnesota we have three Native American Indian candidates who are leading the way and blazing new trails when it comes to what real people's politicians are supposed to be like--- and they are challenging the most useless and disgustingly racist Democrats presently holding these three state legislative offices.
If anyone would like to see what real people's politicians are like... I would encourage you to visit their websites:
Greg Paquin for Minnesota Senate District 4:
Candidate for Minnesota Senate
District: 4
1511 Roosevelt Road SE.
Bemidji, Minnesota , 56601
218-209-3157 h
651-503-9493 c
check out my blog:
http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/
and
Nicole Beaulieu for Minnesota House District 4-A:
http://anishinaabecandidate.blogspot.com
Also, Nicole Beaulieu was featured on the front page this past Sunday in the Bemidji Pioneer Press, the largest daily newspaper in northern Minnesota... you can read that article which I have posted on my blog:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/nicole-beaulieu-opposes-persell-for-4a.html
If anyone wants to help these candidates in any way, I am sure they would appreciate hearing from you because they are standing up for ALL of us, not only the people in their own districts who will be voting for them.
At the present time there are no Native American Indians sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature even though Minnesota has one of the largest Native American Indian populations of any state.
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