The Foolish Dennis Kucinich

One of my very best friends today remarked that she thinks I operate better when I'm a little pissed off. Sadly that's true. I have ample reason to be rather perturbed these days- personal and professional ones- but I must admit that I appreciate the push of a little emotional energy. My inner conflict often consists of a 'lay by the fire' laziness and an Germanic need for precision. The only thing that keeps me from being abandoned by my friends is the fact that the primary target of my critical lens is me.

That's why I love Dennis Kucinich. Listening to him talk takes the lens of myself for a moment. I may be an asshole but I'm not a naive asshole. In this dangerous world, this difference definitely matters. When asked if the thought the world would be better off if Hizbollah was dismantled, his answer was that the world would be better of without war. Yes, and I would be better off if Jessica Alba was my girlfriend but that's not likely. Uma Thurman, maybe but not Miss Alba.

So caught up in his own ideology, Kucinich completely dismisses the needs of other people. Comfortable in the warm blanket of security provided by the US Military, Kucinich feels no shame at criticizing others who seek the same comfort. He may not be dumb but he is still a fool. He is, in fact, the worst kind of fool convinced of his own intelligence. He and his ilk are the most easily manipulated by the hustler. He's so sure that violence is the ultimate evil that he is willing to reward those who use it as a terroristic weapon. He believes that dialog can solve anything- a childish, Sesame Street view of the world.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
-John Stuart Mill

Kucininch needs to grow up. The world is not the safe, fuzzy places he wishes it to be. Peace doesn't naturally exist. It never has. Peace is earned and protected by men with weapons. And Kucinich's freedom is a gift from those same men too.