"A vote for Dennis Kucinich in the primaries is not just a vote for a unique and courageous member of Congress, who was the first presidential candidate to oppose Bush's war in Iraq and led antiwar opposition in the U.S. House. It is also a vote that says as clearly as possible to Democratic leaders and candidates that you want the Democratic Party to stand for an important set of progressive principles that will help us win in November."
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"A vote for Kucinich says that you want the bloated Pentagon budget cut to help pay for enhanced environmental clean-up, educational opportunities from pre-K to college, national health insurance for all and other expanded domestic programs. U.S. military spending will soon rival that of all other countries on the planet combined. Kucinich proposes specific cuts in Pentagon spending on weapons systems that are unworkable, unnecessary and wasteful, including Star Wars missile defense, F22s and V22s."
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"Kucinich has a plan for our nation to join other advanced democracies with genuinely universal health coverage -- national health insurance that eliminates the waste and bureaucracy of private insurance, the primary obstacle to universal coverage. Other candidates propose tinkering with a system that leaves private for-profit insurance firms in the center of healthcare...."
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Congressman Kucinich advocates a global system in which the United States leads the world in negotiating trade agreements that raise up environmental, labor and human rights standards around the world. Under the existing regime of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and secret trade tribunals, multinational corporations have been allowed to drive standards downward.
"In 1999, Congressman Kucinich was one of the few elected officials who joined environmental and union activists to protest the WTO in Seattle. His first act as President will be to withdraw from NAFTA and the WTO -- to be replaced by bilateral "fair trade" pacts in their place that feature labor and environmental protections. Randy Hayes, the respected environmental leader who founded Rainforest Action, says: "Kucinich is the only presidential candidate calling for the elimination of the World Trade Organization. That alone would do more to support nature's needs than any other environmental action. Vote for Kucinich."
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"A vote for Kucinich says that you want the Democratic Party to support new priorities in criminal justice and a new approach to drug abuse emphasizing treatment over criminalization. Congressman Kucinich wants to end the ineffective and racially-biased "drug war," which fuels violence, saps law enforcement resources, and undermines precious constitutional freedoms, such as the right to privacy. It has fueled a prison-industrial complex at the expense of racial minorities who are disproportionately incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses -- and at the expense of taxpayers. Kucinich strongly supports the right of those suffering from disease to have access to medical marijuana."
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"A vote for Kucinich is a vote that says you want the United States to move away from the policies of Iran, China and Saudi Arabia, and join more than 100 countries, including all of Western Europe, that have abandoned the death penalty. Kucinich says that our country's death penalty is racially and economically biased, is no deterrent to crime and risks executing the innocent. He agrees with Amnesty International that it is the ultimate human rights abuse for a government to kill someone it has pacified and in custody."
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"Federal budget priorities, global trade and criminal justice are not side issues. They are fundamental issues for the Democratic Party. Only a vote for Kucinich in the primaries will be counted as a vote for a Democratic Party with progressive vision and real solutions.
While it is true that any Democrat is preferable to Bush, it is also true that a primary vote for these other candidates can only be interpreted as encouraging a Democratic Party that supports the status quo and failed policies of the past. It's a vote that seems to say yes to bloated military budgets; regressive and racially-biased criminal justice; and a system of corporate globalization that harms the planet and people's aspirations in developing countries.
A Democratic Party primary or caucus is the right place to send a message of what kind of Democratic Party you want -- that you want a nominee who sets a new direction from Bush and Bush-lite policies of leading Democrats. When people vote for Kucinich, it strengthens the progressive wing of the party. When enough people vote for Kucinich, he wins. In primaries, that doesn't require many votes.
By voting for Kucinich in the primaries, you are also saying that you want civil liberties safeguarded (he's the only candidate who voted against the "Patriot Act") -- and that you want a new U.S. approach to foreign relations, one that increases our security at home by leading a new international consensus enforced by law, treaties and a strengthened U.N. You're saying that you want an America that looks upon the world for friends, not enemies; an America that tells the world we want to be their partner in peace, not their leader in war; an America that offers the developing world concrete help through a "Global Green Deal" for sustainable development, and through trade policies that lift up living standards abroad; an America that offers the world a helping hand, not a clenched fist.
Vote Kucinich. A better world is possible."
http://www.kucinich.us/whichway.htm
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