By Stephen Dinan
OpEdNews.Com
With current polls showing John Kerry leading at 60% for the California
primary next Tuesday, I begin to wonder if our culture of innovation,
independence and frontier adventure is beginning to fade.
C'mon California: Kerry?
Two months ago, Kerry hardly registered on the radar here. Most thought
him too patrician, too dull, or at least too conservative on issues from
the Iraq war to NAFTA to gay marriage. Few people in
California contributed to his campaign. Top honors went to Dean and
Kucinich in terms of donors and number of volunteers. Both have
revolutionary fire and some shoot-from-the-hip West Coast attitude.
They are bold, authentic, and willing to rattle conventional
opinion. They give speeches straight from the heart and aren't
afraid to go off script.
Kerry is safe. He is the frightened man's bet for the race against
Bush. He's the compromise candidate, a man about whom we will say,
"I suppose that's the best we could hope for." He has the pedigree,
the power broker network, the height, and the moderate positions on
everything. When many people I know talk about voting for Kerry, it is
with a sigh of resignation rather than the hurrah of freedom.
It does not have to be this way.
Californians have been seduced by the media trance that has ordained Kerry
the winner. However, we in California are supposed to CREATE the
spell of the media rather than be seduced by it. We make the magic
of movies and push the frontiers of technology. We innovate,
pioneer, and explore. We don't march to the beat of the
establishment drum.
Next Tuesday, I would like to see some spunk in the California vote, some
fire to send to the convention. Let's tell the party that we want
substantial change. We want a rainbow of color rather than shades of
gray. We want nectar of the gods rather than stale bread. We
want a Democratic Party that doesn't feel like it has had the lifeblood
sucked from it.
I don't want to believe that California has sunk into numb lethargy.
This is an oasis of idealism, a Petri dish for the future. Do we
really line up in the Kerry corral just because he's won the popularity
contest so far? Or do we set our own course and chart our own destiny?
Here is the simple truth: if you are interested in positive social
change on ANY front, from the environment to trade reform to peace to
organic food to health care reform to economic justice to personal growth
to electoral reform to busting corporate corruption to reducing
discrimination to gay marriage, Dennis Kucinich should be your man.
In fact, if you have ever
" shopped at Whole Foods
" stretched into a yoga asana
" carried a protest sign
" read Noam Chomsky
" sung along to Bob Marley
" admired MLK, Gandhi, or Mandela
... bought Julia Butterfly certified products
" resented multinational corporations
" resonated with Ani DiFranco lyrics
" reminisced about Burning Man
" worried about child labor in Indonesia
" approached an issue holistically
" homebirthed
" or any of a thousand other things that put you a bit ahead of the
change curve, then Dennis should be your man
That said, the great thing about Dennis is that while he advocates a
boldly progressive platform, he does so with very ordinary, middle-class
America packaging. He's just as comfortable with bowling and polka
as he is on stage surrounded by hip-hop artists or a drum circle. He
offers substantial, deep, visionary change in a way that everyday people
can understand. In his home district, for example, he's made a
business of converting Republicans into Democrats and now wins with 75% of
the vote in a previously Republican district.
Dennis is like a bridge over which the major changes of an emerging
culture can enter mainstream politics.
More traditional Democratic populations are vital in this cultural shift,
and Dennis has impeccable credentials to reach them, authoring legislation
that helps regular working class families across the board rather than a
powerful elite. However, it's the folks stretching the
change envelope that I'm speaking to at the moment because I believe you
are the key to breaking this campaign through to the next tier. You
are the ones that lead the revolutions: the activists and the artists, the
rebels and the dreamers, the eco-freaks and the idealists, the healers and
the hipsters, the meditators and the musicians.
We've got to lead the way in reminding California of its roots and its
destiny: to blaze brightly for the rest of the world. Hawaii has
laid the groundwork, with a second-place finish for Dennis and 27% of the
vote despite a virtual media blackout. Let's outdo Hawaii's results in
California.
So send a positive change message to the Democratic establishment by
voting for Dennis next week. Neither Kerry nor Edwards sends a
meaningful message for change now. They are the safe candidates. If you
want to play it safe and scale down on your dreams, they are your guys.
If you want to go boldly towards the future, Dennis is your man.
Making this statement is even more important now that the media tidal wave
is sweeping Kerry along and threatening to wash the progressive wing out
of the party and into Nader terrain. A vote for Kerry is now a wasted
vote. A vote for Dennis is a signal for change and a protection of
the progressive base in the Democratic Party. It is a clear
notification that the NEXT America is waking up and taking a stand. It
states that the movements that have been gathering steam across this
country for decades are beginning to feel their power and use it.
The Swedes have a relevant term - kulturbärer. A bearer of
culture. It refers to someone or something that acts like a sherpa
for a culture as whole, carrying it forward. In a very real way, Dennis is
a kulturbärer. He is an expression of the convergence of all
the movements for positive change: social justice, consciousness, peace,
sustainability, women's rights, gay rights. He's at the leading
edge of these trends, integrating them and talking about them in a way
that conventional folks can really understand. Dennis represents an
emerging culture that is growing up and starting to feel its power.
The only problem is that the emerging culture, which is actually vast,
doesn't recognize its potential yet. Change movements have been
splintered and thus have felt small. Together, they are enormous. The
sociologist Paul Ray has studied this culture and pegged its size at 50
million in America alone. 50 million people that share an
increasingly similar new vision for America and a new vision for the
world! However, they are stuck thinking of themselves as less
powerful and less numerous than they actually are.
This emerging culture needs to feel its strength. It can do that in
a substantial and meaningful way by rallying behind a kulturbärer,
someone to hold the torch in the public sphere. Dennis Kucinich can
be our kulturbärer.
Bear in mind that he may be ignored. And ridiculed. And
dismissed. And disrespected. And you may feel pain when you
watch it happen. But also remember that agents of change are always
treated that way and that it is part of the process of cultural growth.
In that spirit, I encourage you to see that when Dennis is
dismissed, know that he is taking that hit for you, for your children, and
for the planet. Someone has to carry the torch for the emerging
culture into politics and as Dennis does so, the entrenched power
structures will resist. That is why our kulturbärer must be so
resilient.
Fortunately, he is. He's perhaps the most optimistic person I've
ever known. He wakes up each day excited and hopeful. Even
after getting dissed, dismissed, and marginalized, he keeps his eyes
clear, his heart compassionate, and his compass set clearly on the future
goal. He knows that he is carrying the torch for a movement that
will produce a major evolution of our country. Carrying that torch
is a sacred role and he therefore carries it with dignity, optimism, and
honor.
Do Dennis the honor of voting for him and supporting him so that a new
vision of America can emerge. It is time. We are ready.
