The Case for Dennis Kucinich

By Al-Muhajabah

There's a lot of debate among Muslims over who to vote for in the 2004 presidential primaries. The two candidates with the most support among Muslims are Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich. While some Muslims believe that Dean has the best positions on the issues, many more Muslims are supporting Dean because they heard that he's the front-runner or because they think that he's "electable" and Kucinich isn't. This includes Muslims who believe that Kucinich has the best positions on the issues.

I believe that as Muslims, we should not just be participants in American society, but that we should seek to make America a better place. This is part of our duty to command what is right and prohibit what is wrong. As such, we need to stand up and speak out for our views.

This is where the fallacy of the "vote for Dean because he's electable" argument is apparent. The primaries are a time for citizens to express their view about what type of leadership we should have in this country and what types of policies we want to see. The nominating process is based on a system of proportional representation so that each view that has support among the voters is represented. At the convention, each candidate will be seeking to win the support of enough delegates to gain the nomination. If there is a group of delegates who, for instance, want to repeal the Patriot Act, the candidates may agree to oppose the Patriot Act in order to win the support of these delegates. In this way, the cause of those who want repeal of the Patriot Act is advanced. Opponents of the Patriot Act have made their voice heard in the political process and added their views to the national discourse.

I believe that this is a good way for Muslims to make our own voices heard and to add our views to the national discourse. In order to do this, we need to find a candidate who agrees with our views and give this candidate our support. This candidate's delegates can then act as our representatives at the convention and seek to advance our cause.

I believe that Dennis Kucinich is the candidate we should support. We are not "throwing away our votes"; we can still vote for the Democratic nominee, whoever he is, in the general election in November. A vote for Kucinich in the primaries is in no sense a vote for Bush. Instead, a vote for Kucinich is a vote for the issues that we care about. It's a vote for Dean in the primaries that may be "wasted". When we vote with the majority, we are silencing our voices before they've ever been heard. Dean has no reason to listen to us if we're already in his camp. But if he has to win us over by wooing our delegates at the convention, then he will have to listen to us and do things to earn our vote.

A vote for Kucinich in the primaries and a vote for Dean (or whoever the nominee will be) in the general election is a winning strategy for Muslims. I urge all of you to join me in supporting Kucinich.

The rest of this article sets out Kucinich's positions on the issues and his Congressional record, his accessability to the Muslim community and his support within it. It even makes an argument why Kucinich is, after all, electable. I hope, inshallah, that this will convince you that Kucinich is the candidate who will best represents our interests and is most worthy of our vote in the primaries.

Kucinich on the Issues
Civil liberties - Kucinich voted against the Patriot Act and promises to repeal it. In September 2003, he introduced into Congress HR3171 (the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act") to repeal the Patriot Act's most egregious provisions. He also vows to oppose any attempted "Patriot II" legislation. And Kucinich has been a long-standing opponent of secret evidence and racial profiling.

Iraq - Kucinich has opposed the war on Iraq since July 2002. He mobilized 126 Democrats in the House of Representatives to vote against it and even filed suit against the Bush Administration to try and stop it. He opposes the continued American occupation of Iraq and has proposed an exit plan to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out within 90 days.

Middle East - Kucinich believes that the following four steps are necessary for peace in the Middle East: 1) Israel must stop building settlements, 2) Israel must tear down the Wall, 3) Israel must recognize an autonomous Palestinian state, 4) Israel must join with the U.S. and Europe in rebuilding Palestine's infrastructure.

Education - Kucinich has proposed a program that would offer free public education from pre-K through college level. This would be paid for by repealing the Bush tax cuts. He also believes that vouchers are not the solution to America's education problems; rebuilding our public schools IS.

Healthcare - Kucinich calls for a universal, single-payer healthcare system to replace the current system of private insurers. He calls this system, which is similar to Canada's, "Medicare for All". Since this would be a replacement rather than a modification of the current system, all the money currently spent on healthcare would be spent on it instead. Studies have shown that a single-payer system would in fact reduce health care costs. Single-payer is supported by more than 8,000 physicians.

Jobs and Economy - Kucinich has proposed a public works program that would put people to work rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure. This is similar to the public works programs of the New Deal that helped get America out of the Great Depression. To help reduce the deficit, Kucinich would cut defense spending (including the huge expense of keeping the U.S. in Iraq) and repeal the Bush tax cuts, replacing them with a system of progressive taxation that shifts the tax burden from the working poor to the wealthy.

More information about these and other Kucinich positions is available from the campaign website.

Kucinich's Record in Congress
Of all the presidential candidates who are in Congress, Kucinich has the strongest voting record on Arab-American issues, in fact is the only one with a positive voting record on Arab-American issues. The Arab-American Institute's 2002-2003 Congressional Scorecard shows that Kucinich took the "correct" position on five issues (Iraq, Israel/Palestine, immigration reform, hate crimes, and miscellaneous resolutions) and did not take the "incorrect" position on any issue.

Legislation that Kucinich has introduced in Congress includes bills to repeal the Patriot Act, abolish the death penalty, establish a Department of Peace, and fund universal pre-K education. Kucinich has also co-sponsored legislation to establish universal health care, provide a living wage for workers, and require a paper trail for electronic voting machines to guarantee the integrity of the vote, among other bills.

Kucinich's Accessibility to Muslims
Kucinich has a long record of making himself accessible to the Muslim community. He has hired or taken as interns a number of Muslim Americans. He meets regularly with his Muslim and Arab-American constituents in Cleveland. In his presidential campaign he has spoken several times at CAIR events, the only candidate to do so - and in spite of getting some very negative press from right-wing commentators for it. He also spoke at the ISNA convention on August 30, 2003.

Additionally, Kucinich has created the post of National Muslims for Kucinich Coordinator on his campaign staff. Muslims working as campaign volunteers, including the National Muslims for Kucinich Coordinator, have found not only the candidate himself but also his staff to be welcoming and indeed eager to work with them and to reach out to the Muslim community. His campaign manager says that this is important "for the healing of America" after 9/11.

Support for Kucinich Within the Muslim Community
Leaders in national Muslim organizations like CAIR, ISNA, and the American Muslim Alliance have expressed support for Kucinich’s candidacy. A group of nearly 100 supporters, ordinary Muslims from around the country, have organized an email list to receive updates on the campaign and learn about volunteer opportunities. The membership of this group has tripled in the last month and continues to grow on a daily basis. There does not seem to be any comparable organized group of Muslims supporting any of the other candidates.

Among the reasons cited by Muslims for supporting Kucinich are:

1) His opposition to the Iraq war
2) His support of Palestinian rights
3) His opposition to the Patriot Act
4) That his proposals for universal healthcare and expanded public education are consistent with their religious beliefs about providing for the less fortunate and the needy

Electability
The one concern that Muslims tend to express about supporting Kucinich is: is he electable? In reality, this is the wrong question to ask. The right question is: will we elect him? When people hold back their support, they create a "self-fulfilling prophecy". If everybody who says that they agree with Kucinich's platform would go ahead and support him, he would BE electable.

And Kucinich has a lot more support than is reported in the media. MeetUp.com, a website that allows people with common interests to arrange meetings, shows Kucinich in third place out of the nine candidates, behind only Dean and Clark. That is, Kucinich has the third-highest number of active supporters among the campaigns. Kucinich is also in the top three or four in terms of the size of crowds that come out to his campaign appearances and in terms of the number of people contributing to his campaign. Likewise, he ranks in the top three or four in measures of internet support (visits to his website, performance in online polls, mentions on personal webpages and blogs, etc). In measure after measure of the actual number of supporters, Kucinich consistently ranks in the top three or four.

Can Kucinich beat Bush? He has as good a shot as any other Democrat, and perhaps even better. The clear mood among Democrats today is "anybody but Bush". Are these people going to vote for Bush after all if Kucinich is the nominee? No, they'll vote for Kucinich. So as the nominee, Kucinich would have the full support of the Democratic party. And Kucinich has an extra advantage. Ralph Nader has said that he won't run again if Kucinich is the nominee, and will tell Greens to vote for Kucinich. He is already asking them to support Kucinich in the primaries. In 2000, the votes for Gore and Nader combined would have been enough to beat Bush. The same can be true in 2004, and Kucinich is better placed than almost any other candidate to win the Green vote. With the Democratic vote and the Green vote, he CAN beat Bush.

The author has large footprints on the internet through her spiritual, legal and political contributions.