Dennis Talks About Setting a Direction for the Democratic Party [View All]

[redqueen]

http://www.kucinich.us/031304-illinois.php


Video by Ryan Adkins (9 mins.)
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Chicago, Illinois
Rainbow-PUSH Weekly Forum

Introduction by Reverend Jesse Jackson

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Reverend Jesse Jackson: I want you all to hear something real, real basic about this campaign: no matter what the polls say, no matter what the polls say, George Bush has the inside track. They stole the election without the White House; they can control it with the White House. We must overwhelm the machinery on Election Day, but I do not want to ever mislead you, because we can win and still lose unless we change assumptions. If you get the flipside of the same nickel, you have not won.

In slavery times there were liberals and conservatives. Conservatives said, "Treat the enslaved as you want; they are property." Liberals said, "Don't treat them bad; I want to go to heaven." But both liberals and conservatives were for slavery. Abolitionists was another coin. I have no interest in the liberal side of a right-wing coin. We need another coin. We need another proposition. Y'all hear what I'm saying?


I want to express my thanks to Dennis today for being in the race, and for assuming the burden of saying "you make the most sense, but you can't win". I heard that. Every now and then, sense ought to count in these campaigns. And even if sense is a minority it's going to let its light shine anyhow. You might go along with darkness -- darkness is popular -- but if this room was totally dark and someone lit one candle you would be saved by the power of the light, not by the size of the darkness. Can I get a witness here?

Somebody has got to make sense about Iraq, about Haiti, about the federal right to vote. See, no matter what the count is I hear somebody saying that no good thing will be lost if you do the Lord's work and do it right. And so, Dennis Kucinich, your work in this campaign has not been lost; keep speaking truth against the odds. A big hand for Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland, Ohio, the congressman! On your feet. Show your respect and your appreciation for Dennis Kucinich.



Dennis Kucinich: Thank you very much Reverend Jackson, my colleague, Congressman Jackson. Happy birthday to you and your daughter. Since we're all in a birthday mood, let me share that I come to the microphone with a distinction of my own in that regard. I happen to share the same birth date with Reverend Jackson, October 8th. So the stars were in alignment on October 8th -- 1941 in his case and 1946 in mine. But I was close behind.


I like to feel that the things I bring to this presidential race are also close behind, traveling in the powerful wave Reverend Jackson created for democrats years ago when he said “keep hope alive.” And that wasn't true just for that one convention: it was true for all the conventions we would hold, and it's certainly true for 2004. Because while the nominee for the upcoming election may be a foregone conclusion, what we stand for as the Democratic Party is not a foregone conclusion. We must be the party that stands for peace, for health care, for voting rights, and for social and economic justice.

If justice is in fact to be the measuring line, then let us draw the line here at Push today, because we shouldn't have to choose between a Republican version of the war in Iraq and a Democratic version of the war in Iraq. We have to stand for peace. We have to stand for connecting with the world community. And we have to bring our troops home.

It's time for us to realize that when the President of the United States us took this country into a war, we were taken into that war based on a lie. We were told that Iraq had attacked us. It had not. We were told that Al Qaeda had something to do with Sadam Hussein. This also turned out to be untrue. We were told that Iraq had something to do with the anthrax attack. Not so. In fact Iraq had neither the capability nor the intention to attack the U.S. Iraq wasn’t trying to get uranium from Niger. And Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.

Reverend Jackson, I was mayor of the City of Cleveland, and I could have helped George Bush find weapons of mass destruction. All Bush needed to do was to come to the neighborhoods of any city in America; we could have helped him find all sorts of weapons of mass destruction. Because poverty is a weapon of mass destruction! Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction! Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction! Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction, poor education is a weapon of mass destruction, and racism is a weapon of mass destruction! We have weapons of mass destruction here at home that we have not taken care of; that we have not disarmed. We have to address these things here at home before we go around the world looking for dragons to slay.

We're talking about the essential mission of government -- and John Kerry is going to need a lot of help. He may not be able to say the things he needs to say, so we need to say the things that must be said. We need to present the issues. We need to set the priorities of our party, and we need to set a direction for the Democratic Party, so when people come in November they’ll be lining up outside the polls. We need to set a direction for the Democratic Party so there will be so many people lining up to vote that it will be a like a mighty wave come to sweep this administration out of office -- a tidal wave for social and economic justice.

So I'm in this race all the way through to New Jersey and beyond. I'm in this race for peace. I'm in this race for health care. I'm in this race for jobs. I'm in this race to do everything I can to raise the level of the debate. I'm in this race, Reverend Jackson, to take the principles that you've worked your life for -- the principles that Dr. Martin Luther King stood for – and to create with them a cabinet-level Department of Peace where we can make non-violence an organizing principle in our society. What do we stand for? It's time to do away with war. It's time to do away with war and start to put a peace dividend back into our communities.

I want to thank you, Operation Push. I want to thank you for what you stand for. I want to thank you for keeping the dream alive. I want to thank you for helping to keep a catalyst for change in the Democratic Party. And I pledge to you that I'm going to stay the course. I'm going to run. I'm going to run strong, and I'm going to run hard. I'm going to run for justice. And I'm going to carry that banner for peace right into the convention. I'll be there right next to you. We'll go in together!

Thank you very much.