Contra Kucinich

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I generally have quite a bit of time for Dennis Kucinich, even when I disagree with him. But his self-defeating opposition to Obama's health-care reform package, and to the Democratic plan in Congress (Senate bill + minor patches passed through reconciliation), is, at this point, simply indefensible.

Advocate for a better bill, including a robust public option? Sure.

Threaten to vote against the only bill that has a chance of passing, hoping to bring it down? What the hell is he thinking?

Well, he's thinking like Ralph Nader, and we know how that turned out in 2000.

And so I'm with Markos Moulitsas on this (video below):

[Kucinich] is not elected to grandstand and to give us this ideal utopian society. He is elected to represent the people of his district and he is not representing the uninsured constituents in his district by pretending to take the high ground here...

What he is doing is undermining this reform. He is making common cause with Republicans. And I think that is a perfect excuse and a rational one for a primary challenge.

Like it or not, this is where we are. As I put it the other day:

It is a bitter thing, I know, to have to swallow a compromise bill written to appeal to "ConservaDem" support, and to accept demands made by the likes of Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman. It doesn't seem like a win. But it is, and it's a big one, and it's time, long past time, to put aside our differences and to accept that this is it, like it or not, that it's much better than nothing, that it contains some genuinely progressive elements, that millions of people will benefit from it, and that it could very well be the start of a major shift in America towards greater justice and fairness not just with respect to health care but more broadly within society as a whole.

That, it seems to me, is worth fighting for -- and, to that end, worth uniting for. 

It's time for Kucinich to get on board -- or else. As Jon Chait writes, "this is an extreme circumstance, and the Democratic base needs to let its representatives know that they will intentionally work to defeat members who try to save their own skin in a way that just gets everybody (including themselves) killed."

There's just too much at stake here, not just for the Democratic Party, and for individual Democrats, but for millions and millions of Americans. This historic opportunity to pass meaningful and progressive reform of an unjust and unfair system must not be allowed to be tossed into the dustbin.

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