If the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is over, someone forgot to tell Dennis Kucinich.
There he was Saturday night, rallying a standing-room-only crowd of about 230 at the “body-mind-spirit” store Healing Earth Resources on North Ashland Avenue, as he pledged to keep campaigning through the Democratic National Convention in July.
Never mind that John Kerry already has nailed down the 2,162 delegates required for the nomination while progressive torch-carrier Kucinich has collected a mere 23. The 57-year-old Ohio representative and former Cleveland mayor spent the days leading up to Tuesday’s primary canvassing Chicago and the rest of the state to spread his pro-peace/get-out-of-Iraq, anti-NAFTA/WTO, pro-universal-health care message.
“I’m a realist about the numbers,” Kucinich told the casually clad Healing Earth audience, his 5-foot-7 frame tucked into a charcoal suit, his raspy voice booming as he stalked the center aisle without the balky microphone that had been provided. “I can count, OK? But I can also figure. . . . I figure the Democrats are not going to win the election sounding like the Republicans.”
So the mission continues as Kucinich and his followers try to save the Democratic Party from itself.
“You know what the height of courage is?” he asked the crowd.
“You!” someone shouted out.
“The height of courage,” he said, “is to believe you can win a rigged game.”
Healing Earth was decorated with Kucinich signs (“Fear Ends. Hope Begins. Kucinich President 2004”), bumper stickers (“Peace Our No. 1 Priority”) and fliers (“This is the final push. Let’s go get those votes for a true visionary, the American Gandhi. Dennis Kucinich. Rhymes with spinach.”)
One long table was covered with pamphlets, including a petition to the Democratic National Committee titled “Nobody But Kucinich!!!” It states, “[W]e are sick of the idea that ‘Anybody But Bush’ means ‘You have to vote for Kerry.’ We don’t think so! We think ‘Anybody But Bush’ could mean Kucinich! And if we don’t get Kucinich, or we don’t get Kerry to adopt his entire platform (and possibly choose him as a running mate), we REFUSE to vote for him!”
Those in attendance covered a broad age range of true believers, some wearing buttons that read “Impeach Bush” or “Down with Bush.”
“I think he’s the most electable Democrat. I really, truly do,” said Madelyn Gaul, aGarfield Park Conservatory volunteer, as she looked up from her Quilting Arts magazine. “He’s the one who can stand up and say he voted against the [Iraq] war and the Patriot Act.”
Focusing on the issues
Paul DiGuida, a 44-year-old self-described activist, said he only just joined the Kucinich campaign despite the bleak odds. “I think he should stay in the race till the very end because then he has an opportunity to keep a focused agenda on issues that really matter to a lot of people who want to see change,” DiGuida said.
For his part Kucinich told the room he plans to support the Democratic nominee — eventually. “I’m a Democrat,” he said. “I chose to run as a Democrat. I’m staying as a Democrat.”
Still, the party brass wishes he would hop aboard the Kerry bandwagon already. The DNC has scheduled a March 25 Unity dinner in Washington, D.C., and ex-Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are expected to attend along with all of the candidates who ran in the current presidential primary season.
“I know he’s interested in beating George W. Bush and helping to turn the country around, and that’s why we would like him to be at the Unity dinner,” DNC press secretary Tony Welch said. “It’s vital that we all support the presumptive nominee.”
So will Kucinich attend?
“I’ll have a representative there,” he said as his white campaign van carried him to the Annual Croatian-American Society Banquet on West Devon Avenue. “I think I’ll probably be in Pennsylvania campaigning that day.”
Now some might view campaigning in an already-decided race to be as futile as rooting for the Bulls’ bench players toward the end of a blowout loss. But Kucinich said his campaign is raising more money than ever this quarter because “people still want to hear a discussion about the issues.”And although various supporters at Healing Earth complained that the media and Democratic Party had “squelched” his candidacy, Kucinich disagreed.
“I don’t know,” he said in the van. “There were 10 candidates. Now there are two. I’m still here.”
The question now is whether his campaign has any other purpose than getting out his message. “Listen, I play to win,” he said. “I play to win. Always play to win.”
In that case, his mission is rather quixotic, no? “Au contraire,” he replied. “I freely and publicly acknowledge that John is able to count to 2,162, which is what you need to be able to have the nomination. . . . But what hasn’t been resolved is what do we stand for as a Democratic Party?”
Unconstructive campaign
Tim Hagan, Ohio’s unsuccessful 2002 Democratic governor nominee, sees Kucinich’s campaign as unconstructive.
“I think Dennis is using it for therapy now more than anything else,” said Hagan, Cuyahoga County’s Democratic chairman during Kucinich’s late-’70s mayoral term. “It’s not helpful to the Kerry campaign. He ought to realize that. He should endorse the presumptive nominee and get on with his life.”
But Kucinich stressed that he’s “a very practical politician” whose efforts eventually will be appreciated by his party.
“I think that Sen. Kerry will be able to get to 48 percent any day of the week, OK?” he said. “The question is how do you get to 50 percent plus one, and how do you do that in key states?”
Now that former backer Ralph Nader has declared his own independent candidacy, Kucinich sees himself as the Democrats’ best link to those dissatisfied progressives.
“There’s a certain number of people who may not be inclined to support the Democrat,” he said. “How do you bring them in? That’s where I come in. The ability that I have to help bring in that 2 to 3 percent might be the crucial difference between victory and defeat.”
So he plans to continue campaigning from state to state, even if he gets clobbered in every one.
“You have to ask yourself, How committed are you to this?” he said. “Are you so committed that you’re willing to risk a lopsided score? Are you ready to go through that? A lot of candidates won’t do that. . . .
“I cannot be intimidated by defeat,” he continued. “There’s a point at which that quality becomes instructive for a nation.”
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Mark Caro’s profile of Dennis Kucinich appeared on Nov. 7, 2003. To read that article, go to bancodeprofissionais.com/news/specials/elections/
