Reply #21: This is the third rail of American Politics [View All]

Dennis Kucinich has been morally and ethically correct on virtually every subject that will guarantee political defeat.

Israel is the microcosm of world folly: its very existence is a result of religion, passion, denial and guilt, and it presents a situation that is almost, by definition, unsolvable.

You can't say that Israel is out of line in America and not be run out of town for it. You can't say that Jewish influence in American Politics pertaining to it is too great and too unassailable. You just can't.

Religious hatred in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century caused Jews to return to the Holy Land, the world's denial or outright culpability in the attempted genocide of a persecuted people propelled many more to form a State there, and collective world guilt at having done nothing allowed it to happen. Intractable peoples, both with legitimate issues, were allowed to deepen the divide by more collective world denial, and then unscrupulous leaders and peoples exacerbated the situation for their own gain.

It's a mess, it's an outrage, and if you attempt to say anything about it, you will surely pay.

Why did so many otherwise liberal or lefty Jewish politicians vote for the IWR? Saddam Hussein had paid families of Palestinian suicide bombers and terrorists $25K for their actions. Did Hussein give a fuck about the Palestinians? Hahahaha. Did Nasser? Hahaha. Did Assad? Beats me. Hussein wanted to be the great Pan-Arab Toughguy godking; this was just a means to an end.

Why did Henry Waxman vote for the IWR? Why is the PNAC largely Jewish? What the hell has Syria ever done to us? I guarantee you, had the war been tidier at its end, we'd have "pursued Hussein" into Syria, and this wouldn't have been for any other reason than shoring up Israel's flank; hell, they don't even have any oil...

Kucinch tells the truth. I don't always agree with everything, and the methods are certainly extreme, but he's got it right.

This is just another instance of his uncanny ability to guarantee that he can't be elected or even nominated. At least he brings it all up and gets it at least somewhat into the public forum, but I feel that he's also sapping strength from a candidate who truly can win, and throwing it to a "safer" bet who doesn't have anywhere as good a chance and wouldn't be as effective a leader. Whatever.

Examining his response here, he also doesn't address the issue of the Palestinian strain that vows elimination of the Israeli State. He addresses the right of return, but what does he propose about the confiscated property? What about representation in the government of Israel, especially with the overwhelming birthrate of the Palestinians, attempting to swamp the Jews with numbers? Hey, I don't have an answer either.

He's a scrappy guy, I'll give him that. Hopefully his marginalization won't also marginalize everything he stands for by association, but it definitely will to a certain degree.

Then again, without lighting rods like him, many things would simply get swept under the metaphorical rug.

One thing to be mindful of, too: just because he attacks things headlong with extreme solutions to get to the final perfection immediately doesn't mean that he's infinitely "better" than progressive or liberals of the more careful type. Process is not equal to goals. Forthrightness plays very well, but it doesn't WORK very well, especially in an evenly split electorate.

As for the ME issue, though, it's just a nightmare, and anyone who attempts to question Israel too much in American Politics will pay dearly for the honor.