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Andrea Johnson: Kerry machine won't tolerate a challenger
Andrea Johnson

March 25, 2004

JOHNSON0325

Tonight the Democratic National Committee is holding a Unity Dinner honoring John Kerry. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton will be there, as well as all of the presidential candidates. Except one.

Dennis Kucinich.

In a blaze of star-spangled irony, Kucinich was "not invited," according to the Washington Post, or uninvited, according to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) media relations department, because he has not taken himself out of the race for presidency.

"But there is no way Dennis will win the presidency," I explain to a DNC representative. "He just wants the issues that are important to your constituency to remain on the forefront -- withdrawing the occupation, universal, nonprofit health care, and withdrawing from trade agreements, NAFTA and the WTO, that hurt working people."

No matter, was the response. Dennis is divisive. He shouldn't be campaigning.

Essentially, what that media relations representative made clear was that we have no choice but to stand behind Kerry on all of his policies or be ostracized. You are either with Kerry, and the Democratic National Committee, or against them. Period.

I find this highly unsettling. The DNC's Web site (www.dnc.org) is bannered, "John Kerry Lays Out Vision for a Strong Military." The headline of the March issue of the American Conservative reads, "The Next Emperor: Kerry sketches a foreign policy vision scarcely different from the Bush administration."

So, it looks to me as if there isn't much choice for those of us who want to end the occupation. This, after hundreds of thousands protested the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq last Saturday, including more than 2,000 in St. Paul.

And it isn't only Democrats who are against the war. Pat Buchanan is livid about our being involved in Iraq. As he says, on www.theamericancause.org, "there is no party in Washington that speaks for those of us who believe America should stay out of these religious and tribal wars from Morocco to Malaysia where no vital U.S. interest is at risk. There is only one vital interest in this region -- oil, and Iran and the Arabs must sell it to survive, no matter the regime in power."

He later asks whether the United States can afford its imperialistic policies. Good question. America has the most people without health care of any industrialized nation, the most imprisoned, the most homeless (even though most of them hold jobs), the most hungry. Our schools are threatened with closing; in Minneapolis, we essentially have no mass transit. Yet approximately 48 percent of our tax dollars pays for the military (26.2 percent) and interest on the national debt (22.6 percent). Yet somehow we can pay for a military presence in 131 of the world's 191 nations. Yet we can afford to throw $200 billion and more into supporting an occupation that was based on lies.

Well, Kerry seems to think so. And you'd better stand behind him, in the name of unity. You really have no choice.

Andrea Johnson, Minneapolis, is a marketing communications manager.