"If I were a younger man, I would be working for Kucinich."

“If I were a younger man, I would be working for Kucinich.”  - My father, 2003.

Long a fan of Dennis Kucinich, I stumbled across a recent article declaring him a man who has been ahead of his time for the majority of his political career.  They stopped short of declaring that his time has come, but this is something we may have some indication of when the Ohio Democratic Gubernatorial primary is held on May 8. 

 Here is a short list of reasons why I consider Kucinich worth voting for. 

·       Given an F rating by the NRA.  Supports an assault weapons ban.

·       Supports $15 minimum wage for Ohio.

·       Wants to end all fracking and drilling in Ohio.

·       Says he’ll turn the governor’s mansion into a homeless shelter.

·       Has two beagle mixes.  (Of course, I don’t vote for people because of their pets, but it is a plus.)

He also has a lifetime record of fighting for his principles.  The most notable of these was against the fight to privatize the city power utility when Kucinich was Mayor of Cleveland.  After struggling against powerful interests, including a hit placed on his life by a local mob boss, he eventually lost his reelection bid, but the city utility was not privatized.  In the 90’s Kucinich was cited by the City Council for his “courage”  which saved the people of Cleveland over $195 million dollars by keeping the utility in public hands. 

Returning to my father’s quote, early in 2003 my father declared his support for John Kerry.  Privately he made the above statement to me.  A political scientist and man who found great joy in the sport of politics, he had a long history of working for principled candidates who pushed issues forward but rarely had personal electoral success.   (See Gene McCarthy in 1976.  My father was on the ballot in Ohio as his running mate.)  Even so he had never been to a party convention, and he wanted to be a delegate.  Unbeknownst to me, he also knew that his mild cognitive decline was the beginning of something much larger and this would be one of his last campaigns.  Sadly, he was not chosen as a delegate, something he blamed on being just another white man. He poured his energies into the race, but at his core he saw the solutions to the problems of our society as being something that a candidate like Kerry, unlike Kucinich, would never address.