Readers of my blog probably recall that I have been a vocal supporter of Dennis Kucinich because of his strong stance for genuinely progressive values and his commitments to peace and universal healthcare. I continued to support Kucinich both by talking about him to people and financially supporting his campaign despite the fact that his virtual silencing by the mainstream media made him all but a lost cause.
Today that changes.
Here are the relevant news articles:
Kucinich has called upon his supporters in Iowa to back Barack Obama as their second choice candidate. Obama’s campaign is high on hopeful sounding language with little meaningful content and close examination of his record gives the lie to his image as a candidate for any real change. While by no means perfect, John Edwards is a much better choice than Obama in that he is raising class issues and talking about fighting corporate power while Obama talks about compromising with it.
Obama and Clinton are more of the same old corporate Democrats who dominated the Clinton era and who currently dominate this utter disappointment of a Congress (whose approval rating is even lower than the President’s abysmal rating). Edwards is the one chance for real change in a “mainstream” candidate if not quite the change that Kucinich would represent.
By lending his support to Obama, Kucinich has betrayed his progressive base and lost my support. I pray Edwards can carry the day in Iowa today. If not, it’s looking more and more likely that I will have to abstain on principle from the election in November.