Kucinich Pulls the Party to the Left

Dennis Kucinich is an anchor, hanging off the far left side of the Democratic party boat, pulling it farther in that direction.

In both 2004 and in this upcoming Presidential election, Kucinich has acted as the voice of extreme liberalism. The Congressman from Ohio has an unwaveringly populist platform. He has called for the immediate (though phased) withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He is in favor of government-funded college education for any student interested. He has campaigned for single payer, universal health care. He has said that, if elected, he would immediately withdraw the United States from NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. He wants to end the death penalty and the war on drugs. He wants to legalize same sex marriages.

The list goes on.

However, he has struggled to round up more than marginal support, even among far-left liberals. Despite the fact that he has been campaigning for the Presidency for virtually all of the past four years, he remains in the low single digits in all published polls.

Why?

One reason is that his campaign has suffered from a lack of exposure. In a well-documented exchange with Ted Koppel of ABC News during a debate in 2003, Kucinich argued with the reporter about whether his campaign deserved the attention of the media. The next day, ABC removed all of its correspondents from the Kucinich campaign.

He announced his 2008 candidacy in late 2006, well before any other candidate. And yet, he routinely comes in sixth among Democratic presidential candidates, and doesn't even show up in some polls.

His often extreme positions on issues - and his bold manner of presenting his positions - also do not endear him to the general public. Among voters who are aware of who he is, he is seen as a radical, and that is poison to a candidate trying to make it into the mainstream.

Kucinich, however, does not appear to be concerned with making it into the mainstream. He stayed in the 2004 race long after he had been mathematically eliminated. He did so, he said, to help decide the direction of the party. By continuing to lend his voice to the causes that he believed in, he felt he could pull the party in the same direction.

His main motivation, it seems, is to act as the anchor of the party.