Reply #95: I'd like to thank the Academy, for bestowing upon me this Award.... [View All]

[RichM]

I didn't exactly "forget" about money vanishing to offshore accounts, nor that Clinton was far less corrupt than Bush in awarding contracts. Rather, I was just not really trying to write a book. // Also, Democrats such as Lieberman were involved in keeping the rules regulating off-shore accounts lax.

Generally, I don't find much to disagree with in your dissection of my post. Which is another way of saying that you don't really disagree with me all that much, either. You see clearly that Kucinich is "ahead of his time" -- ie, an extraordinary candidate, who offers things of enormous value that the others are nowhere near. And feeling significant reservations re: his past history on reproductive rights is completely understandable. (Though for a proven straight-shooter like DK, a non-panderer who has already been willing to antagonize so many powerful interests with his truth-telling, it would be completely out of character for him to be lying about his conversion on this issue.)

The only thing that really seems to upset you is my scorn for, as you put it, "...all the very valid reasons people had for choosing who they chose." On the one hand, I acknowledge that it's reasonable for you to be upset about this. On the other hand, anyone who supports a candidate on grounds that he's a general or a tall Southern charmer, is an idiot. There's no other way to say it, & I don't feel obliged to sugarcoat it. It's the same thing as voting for Schwarzenegger because he's a kick-ass movie star.

Furthermore, my MAIN point was that the sequence should have been Principles first, Candidates thereafter. Not Candidates first, then fight like banshees from that point on. Once you establish a principled framework, such as: "imperialism and militarism are cancers on our society; the war was an enormous & unforgiveable crime, and anyone who failed to oppose it does not deserve consideration for high office" -- it forces candidate selection to take place on a higher level - above the level of image, personality, and superficial BS.

You admit I said nothing totalitarian. It was also not "authoritarian." If you want to call it "opinionated" you'd be on safe ground. // I don't quite understand your last sentence (about "recontextualizes the rest"). It seems like a very nice sentence; I just don't quite know what it means. I seriously doubt that I pick & choose my history any more than anyone else on this degenerated & pathetic website.