too left for the left?

Why isn’t every liberal in love with Dennis Kucinich? The man is everything a liberal should be.

My love affair with Kucinich started one night while watching the recap of a Logo debate. Issues addressing the homosexual community are number one on my list, because I won’t let assholes treat my best friend like he’s a second-class citizen. On this night, I fell completely out of love with former favourite John Edwards when he preached tolerance and then said he didn’t support gay marriage.

Just when I was ready to quit this race and go totally socialist, Kucinich took the stage. It was immediately brought up that there is nothing the LGBT community wants that he is against. He wholly supports same-sex marriage. All evening he talked about love and compassion: whether it was the love between same-sex couples, compassion for those who need medicinal marijuana, helping the sick with affordable nation-wide healthcare, every word he said was spot-on.

I have always had a strange affinity for short politicians (it all began with the super-cute super-short Jeff Smith) so I grew curious about Kucinich. I looked him up on the Internets and found out he is the only candidate who opposed the war with Iraq when it was originally proposed. His healthcare, his care for the middle class, everything was spot-on. How had I missed this guy for so long! How hasn’t he jumped to the front of the left, leading the left with all the liberal ideals we preach?

But then a friend injected some unwanted reality into my fantasy: Kucinich is too left to appeal to a broader audience. She claimed that the undecided masses would vote for a more middle-of-the-road democrat, and Kucinich was too left to gain favour with even some liberals!

My question is, in an election where the flaws of the right have never been more obvious, where the public is so against our current Conservative administration, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to inject the office with ALL the good of liberals? Why put forth a candidate that supported our awful current administration and this war that has killed so many? Why not push forward our entire agenda of equality? He stands for equality in marriage, in healthcare, in bringing up those below the poverty line, and giving future generations a sustainable life. Kucinich is a leftist dream, but has somehow been swept under the rug for being… too perfect?

It was Kucinich’s closing words at that Logo debate that I later found online that really sealed our love affair. He said about his gorgeous supermodel-esque wife Elisabeth:

“We have talked about this and I can’t imagine what it would be like to have met the love of my life and to have such a depth of feeling for her, and then be told that no you can’t be married because there’s a certain rule or law that can’t let that happen. That would be devastating! And because we understand that, because I understand it, I’m ready to be your president. I’m ready to be the person that transforms this nation, that lifts up this nation, that causes not just and American evolution but reconnects us with the deeper truths of who we are!” People wonder how he scored that hot wife, but who wouldn’t love a man like this?

So forget your fears of going too left (and that alien claim) and see Kucinich for what he really is: a man unafraid. He wasn’t afraid to stand up against the war when that idea was unpopular, and he is afraid to stand up for what is right. He is a caring and compassionate candidate who has the best interest of those that have been stomped on in his heart.