Kucinich
Backs Obama In Iowa Primary
By
Jeff Lassahn
03 January,
2008
WSWS.org
Democratic Congressman Dennis
Kucinich has announced to his supporters in Iowa that if he does not
reach the 15 percent threshold of votes needed to proceed to the second
round of nominating the party’s presidential candidate, he “strongly
encourages” them to vote for Senator Barack Obama. This further
underscores the cynical and deceptive nature of Kucinich’s campaign
and his supposedly leftist, antiwar stance.
Kucinich’s
statement states, “In those caucus locations where my support
doesn’t reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all
of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama
and I have one thing in common: Change.”
Obama is
one of the top-tier Democratic candidates and is thoroughly in line
with the militarist strategies of the ruling elite. Just like the Democratic
Party as a whole, Obama’s criticisms of the Iraq war are not about
ending it, but how to make it succeed. Currently he advocates a partial
withdraw from Iraq to re-focus on the “war on terror.” He
has called for more troops in Afghanistan, and unilateral US military
incursions into Pakistan.
In a Foreign
Affairs magazine piece from July 2007, Obama laid out how he intends
to preserve US military dominance: “We must use this moment both
to rebuild our military and to prepare it for the missions of the future.
We must retain the capacity to swiftly defeat any conventional threat
to our country and our vital interests. But we must also become better
prepared to put boots on the ground in order to take on foes that fight
asymmetrical and highly adaptive campaigns on a global scale.”
His current campaign includes recommendations to add another 65,000
soldiers and 27,000 Marines to the standing military.
Congressman
Kucinich is known as the “antiwar” candidate and has suggested
that he would withdraw all troops from Iraq and close military bases
there. His willingness to back the openly militarist Obama demonstrates—far
more than his pseudo-leftist rhetoric—that he has no intention
of challenging the geo-political interests of American imperialism.
Noting that
all of the leading Democratic candidates have continued to fund the
war, including Obama, Kucinich states, “their judgment was wrong.
They have repeatedly said ‘all options’ are on the table
with respect to Iran. Intelligence reports revealing that Iran abandoned
its nuclear weapons program four years ago again demonstrates that their
judgment was wrong.” Thus, Obama funds the criminal enterprise
in Iraq and threatens to launch war against Iran but that should not
prevent Kucinich’s supporters from voting for the Illinois senator.
With the
elections nearly a year away Kucinich is already retracing the steps
he took in the 2004 presidential election. Throughout that year Kucinich
denounced the war and corporate America and insisted that mass pressure
could push the Democratic Party to the left. Then, prior to the Democratic
convention, Kucinich and his supporters dropped their opposition to
the right-wing Democratic platform and lined up behind pro-war candidate
John Kerry, with Kucinich declaring, “The word is unity. That
is the operative word.”
With the
announcement that Kucinich’s supporters in the Iowa caucus should
endorse Obama, the Ohio congressman has made it clear he is again seeking
to bolster the Democratic Party, which has been further discredited
by its collaboration with the Bush administration since taking over
the majority of the US Congress in the 2006 elections.
One year
after taking control Congress, none of the promises of the Democrats
have been carried through. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue,
with the Democrats delivering critical support for over $200 billion
more in funding. Domestic spying, torture, and other attacks on democratic
rights continue unabated. The living standards of ordinary people continue
to fall, while the wealthiest continue to enjoy massive tax breaks and
record profits and bonuses.
In face of
this sordid record, the Kucinich campaign serves to appeal to the broad
hostility over the war and inequality, and channel it back into the
two-party system. At the announcement of his current presidential run
in December of 2006, Kucinich stated, “At this moment, people’s
trust in government is on the line. Trust in the Democratic Party is
on the line.” He added that there is a “sacred responsibility”
to “protect people’s faith in not just our party, but in
the political process itself.”
Aside from
his slavish insistence of supporting the Democratic Party, the purportedly
left-wing program Kucinich offers a mix of the typical reformist proposals
and economic nationalism that has proved to be an utter failure in the
course of the last century. This is combined with a substantial dose
of hypocrisy.
A recent
press release claims that Kucinich is the only presidential candidate
who has “the ability and the foresight to make the right decisions
at the right time. And when you’re talking about life and death
decisions, a belated and apologetic ‘I made a mistake’ is
not acceptable.” Nowhere is it mentioned that shortly after 9/11
he voted for the “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against
Terrorists,” which allowed the Bush Administration to begin the
war in Afghanistan and roll back democratic rights.
Notably,
in all of the “strength through peace” rhetoric on Kucinich’s
campaign web site there is no mention of the war in Afghanistan, and
the immense social catastrophe it has created. In the United Nations
global human development index Afghanistan has fallen to 174 out of
178 countries, with declines in life expectancy, literacy, nutrition,
and further decay of social infrastructure. At the same time the brutal
counter-insurgency program of the US military continues to shed the
blood of innocent Afghans. Presumably, though, the lack of comment on
Kucinich’s web site indicates that Afghanistan is still the “good
war.”
Kucinich
presents himself as a populist, with election claims to rework health
care, end poverty and reverse environmental degradation. Yet he steadfastly
defends and the two-party system, which upholds the capitalist social
and economic setup it upholds. His campaign web site even has as a topic
entitled “Saving Capitalism,” containing nationalist economic
positions of regulation and protectionism.
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