“Antiwar” candidate boosts illusions in a pro-war party: Kucinich runs again for Democratic presidential nomination

In announcing his candidacy, Kucinich voiced concern that the Democratic leadership’s continued support for the occupation of Iraq was discrediting the party and placing it on a collision course with tens of millions of voters who repudiated the war in the elections.

“They voted for the Democrats because they expected us to end the occupation and to bring the troops home from Iraq,” he said, but the Democrats had overwhelmingly supported the last $70 billion appropriation for the war in October and “Unfortunately, our Democratic leaders have already announced they will support an additional appropriation for the war of up to $160 billion,” he complained. “Not only are we not listening to the voters and taking steps to withdraw our forces quickly, we are actually planning to spend twice as much on the war as we did last year! Somebody didn’t get the message,” he said. “And unfortunately it is the leadership of the Democratic Party, and the consequences may be disastrous for our party, our nation and the world.”

He presented his planned presidential campaign as an effort to win back voters disgusted with the reactionary policies of both big business parties and convince them that they should not lose hope in Democrats and the American political system itself. The Democrats, if pressured from below, would be forced to abide by the will of the people, he claimed, end the war and reverse the right-wing agenda pursued by Bush and the Republicans. “We have a sacred responsibility to keep alive the spirit of our nation, to protect people’s faith in not just our party, but in the political process itself,” he declared.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/kuci-d15.shtml