The progress of the Kucinich campaign

    For a grassroots movement like ours I think it's important that we occasionally evaluate our progress and determine in which areas we need to improve or accelerate our efforts. We can't just turn on the news and see how the various campaigns are going when the mainstream media is trying to fix the outcome, so that avenue is out of the question. We need self-evaluation, and while I'm most definitely not the most qualified person supporting Kucinich to do this, I'd like to give a couple of my thoughts on the matter.

    For one, polls. For those of you who are involved in the Kucinich Action Center you are probably already familiar with this (if you're not sign up!). But Kucinich has been doing VERY well in polls on the major news media websites. For example, take a poll by ABC news asking "Who do you think won the Democratic debate" (the debate held last Sunday) which at the time of the following screenshot had over 42,000 people voting.



As you can see, Dennis Kucinich is firmly in the lead (click on the picture to make it larger). While some of this lead may very well be due to the large activist community surrounding him, it is promising nonetheless (and to be fair, part of Obama's ranking is probably also affected at least some in this same way). If you didn't get to vote in this poll you can do so here. As far as I know, ABC, nor any other mainstream news outlet that also had polls on their site where Kucinich was winning, has decided to write an article about the result.

     On the youth front, things are looking positive as well. On a Facebook political poll Kucinich is in first place, with Gravel in a secure third. If you add up Kucinich's support with Gravel's they combine to total almost 47% of the votes. While those who voted in this poll are surely more of the activist type, the good news for us is that among the youth there are many more Kucinich and Gravel activists than there are for the other candidates, although Obama is in a very close second. Here's a screenshot of that poll.



    Secondly, a political questionnaire over on this website has shown how closely the average American's political views are to Dennis Kucinich's. This site asks you to specify your position on many issues and also rank how important they are to you (whether they are 'meh','important', or 'key'). The site is not just for Democratic candidates, but also Republicans. At the time of this writing there have been 137,492 total submissions, and out of those 79,401 of the results ranked Dennis Kucinich as the best match. This shows what we've thought all along, that Dennis Kucinich stands for change and that America wants it. The trouble we face is countering the media and letting the public know that Kucinich's views match their own.


    I think we have a good foundation. We have a candidate, no, the only candidate, who is in touch with the American people. And after 8 years of neocon rule, the American people are ready to try something new. There probably hasn't been this much disgust and mistrust in our government in quite some time, and it's the progressive movement's responsibility to seize on this historic opportunity to make a real change for the better in our lives.

     But to do this we really need to build a powerful grassroots movement. I mean really powerful. Not only do we need to convince people to vote Kucinich, we also need to still convince people to become volunteers in the Kucinich campaign. We have to be everywhere, and must force Kucinich into the national dialogue. We still have to work on methods of organizing political action in areas that we aren't necessarily strong in (the Red states come to mind). We need to get out there on the streets putting up fliers and talking with our neighbors because not everyone engages in political discussions on the Internet (of course the vast majority do not). We need to not only have the organizational skill to convince people that Kucinich is the best candidate, but we also need to be able to develop ways in which we can reveal to the people who support Kucinich how many others do as well, giving them confidence that Kucinich can actually win this election. You can't count on the media to do this for you once you reach some critical level of support. It most likely, if history and economic forces mean anything, will not. You have to assume that the media will actively sabotage the campaign, and so develop countermeasures against it. I hope to talk about more of these issues in later posts.

     But what if Kucinich loses? It's certainly not impossible, we are the underdogs after all. I feel that some Democrats think that supporting a losing candidate is a waste of their time, as if all the activism was worth nothing. I think this is completely wrong. Working for the Kucinich campaign, whether he wins or loses, helps to bring about a more progressive tomorrow. Each person you are able to convince to support progressive ideals keeps that knowledge with them, changing the way they think about politics and increasing the chances of progressive success in the next election. By struggling against the things that keep progressive candidates from winning (lack of money, the media, etc) the movement learns to develop strategies and organizations that help to combat these problems. And lastly, political struggle makes you a more politically conscious individual. By struggling against our existing institutions, the contradictions that exist within our economic and political system rear their heads and our awareness of them becomes much more acute. Just imagine how many Kucinich volunteers are for the very first time struggling with the idea that the mainstream media might not accurately represent reality. And not only are they hearing explanations about the effect of media power by others in the campaign, but they get to see it firsthand and this real life lesson stays with them longer than anything they could have read in a book. I'm sure each one of us will learn something concrete by working in this political campaign, whether we are fully aware of it or not. In the end, whether Kucinich wins or loses, we can make this election season a victory for progressivism. If we work hard enough, who knows, maybe we'll even have a progressive in the White House.