I’m all confused how Dennis Kucinich is going to do it. I must not be reading this right, but here are his own words (typos in the original):
Interview with Cold River Review, November 25, 2007
W. The dollar is falling rapidly, the international and federal debt is growing, very little is produced in this country and even service-based and white-collar jobs are being outsourced. Money is being made through investment and sales but great blocks of the citizenry are being left behind; the rich are getting even richer while many struggle to receive basic health care, a decent education and to keep their homes warm in the winter. How can the economic challenges of maintaining the middle class, keeping a manufacturing base and making local economies stronger be met?
D. One of my first acts in office will be to cancel NAFTA, get out of WTO, and to have trade-based workers’ rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles. This is the only thing we can do to try to stop this race to the bottom and protect our manufacturing jobs. We’ll have a new manufacturing policy that will enable us to reclaim the manufacturing potential that America has always had. We have to make things in order to have democracy. We exported a lot of jobs because of these trade agreements. That is why I am going to get out of those trade agreements and renegotiate them so that the race to the bottom ends, and American jobs are not only protected but maintained and improved. Imagine an expansion of industry. That is the direction I want to go in. I am fed up with the contraction of industry, the loss of well-paying jobs, that helped to create the middle class, to places where workers do not have any rights, are making next to nothing and are living in horrible conditions.We are in a position where we know that if we take corrective measures we can strengthen the America economy, improve the value of the dollar by improving our profile with respect to our the balancing of our accounts, stop building further debt, increasing the productivity of our economy, and taking us in the direction of peace.
W. Gasoline price are about $.90 higher per gallon than they were just a year ago and there is no sign this will turn around. Many people believe that the time of cheap oil is past and that from now as the demand keeps on rising and production levels fall we shall see economic recession/depression and oil wars. What are your thoughts on our present energy situation and what do you believe is the best way forward?
D. We are already in a recession. We’ve had two flat quarters of non-growth and we already have a war for oil. That is what Iraq is all about and that’s what beating the drums against Iran is all about. We need to move away from reliance on oil. In the Kucinich presidency we mean just that. It means that we have that called a ‘Works Green’ administration where the government becomes the engine of sustainability in each and every department. We’ll move the energy department away from subsidizing oil, coal and nuclear energy, and toward subsidizing wind, solar and green energy and alternative energy technologies. Imagine this: Imagine manufacturing, installing and maintaining millions of wind and solar micro-technologies in tens of millions of homes, dramatically reducing home energy requirements for Americans, reducing our carbon footprints and saving people a lot of money on their utility bills. I see a role for government in shifting our reliance on oil and creating government departments of transportation and mass-transit. Promote mass transit and you save energy. In agriculture, promote local farmers getting their products to local markets. In that way you save energy again. We need to foster a tremendous amount of investment in alternative energy technologies and in the science that will bring them forward. We can shorten the development curve and enable these products to be brought forward, not only to create new jobs but to take us way from reliance on oil. We have to do this not only for the practical political economy; we have to do this to protect our planet. We see that increasing greenhouse gases attributable to carbon-based energy technologies are causing ice sheets to melt, raising sea level – our whole planet is threatened. So you see the link between global warring and global warming. I am the one person running for president who gets it and who is determined to take this country in a new direction towards the greening of America.
W. Are you prepared to tell people they are also going to have to reduce their consumption?
D. You know what? This idea that the public has to sacrifice comes from the people who have a limited understanding of what our potential is. We need to be wise, and I am prepared to be an American president who challenges Americans to be efficient in their use of energy, to conserve energy, conserve water. We should do to that, but if we tell people there not going to be enough energy that assumes that we continue to have current rates of usage, which are not the most efficient. Imagine a president who brings this country together in the common cause of energy conservation and energy efficiency, and who helps provide incentives to make sure we can develop these new technologies that will make it possible for us to meet our needs far into the future. I am very hopeful for America’s future as long as we tap our tremendous creative abilities, our ingenuity, our engineering, and our scientific know-how. We haven’t even begun to do that because the oil companies do everything they can to fight the introduction of any technologies that would in any way impact their profits. Because I am not tied to these industries that are ruining our globe I am in the position to be able to lead America in a direction of real sustainability and of prosperity. The two should go hand in hand, actually.
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I’m gonna need a creative type, scientist or engineer to help here:
I do feel kinda nit-picky about this, but I would just feel better if it made more sense to me. First, I “imagine an expansion of industry,” I assume will happen with all this cool solar and wind-powered energy, (and you see we’ll have a ton, because we’re subsidizing the solar and wind industries.) Sounds great. Science will bring them forward (of course. He’s blinded me with science.) But I’m confused how we ‘shorten the development curve.’ Will that violate the second law of thermodynamics?
But mostly, it is the last part that I’m confused about: “This idea that the public has to sacrifice comes from the people who have a limited understanding of what our potential is.” Yes, he’s all for conservation, he says, but “if we tell people there['s] not going to be enough energy, that assumes that we continue to have current rates of usage, which are not the most efficient.”
And since I’m already in my ‘imagining’ mode, feeling the strength of our ‘creative abilities, our ingenuity, our engineering, and our scientific know-how,’ as we put in “millions of wind and solar micro-technologies in tens of millions of homes, dramatically reducing home energy requirements” why stop there? If we’ll be doing all this neat stuff, why do we still HAVE utility bills?
We will already be cutting down our energy usage, so we will not have to cut down our energy usage, because after we’ve already cut it down, there won’t be any need to sacrifice and reduce it. Why not NOT sacrifice a bit more and have no electric bill at all?
Anyone up to the challenge of counting the subtypes of Panglossian Disorders in this quote?
About Kathy McMahon
It sounds like he wants to close Pandora`s box, has huge faith in “new technology”, and believes we thinks we can have our cake and eat it too – otherwise known as “growth”. For more on “growth”, read and understand the quote below. The link at the bottom is a pretty good explenation.
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand
the exponential function.” — Dr. Albert Bartlett
Arithmetic, Population and Energy
http://edison.ncssm.edu/programs/colloquia/bartlett.ram
I guess you’re asking if prices are ‘always falling at Wal-Mart” how come nothings free yet?
I love Dennis, but I agree with you on this one. He knows that if he uses the “S” word (sacrifice) he’s doomed. He’s a Mcgiver-stic cornucopean. I completely sympathize with his trade and labor positions on a philosophical level, but I don’t see how pulling out of trade deals, and all the warm and fuzzy environmental and workers rights notions, could be implemented without bringing the rest of the world along with us. And like the “decider” working with the global community was not mentioned ( at least in this interview) as part of his program. The time for a realistic appraisal of neo-liberal economics and the impact of trade deals was during the Clinton presidency. He screwed us on NAFTA. As a people, we can not accept the fact that we are screwed, and will remain so. As we are falling off the cliff, even our most well-intentioned and progressive politicians can not grasp the contour of the killing ground because we are rushing toward it in a rapid blur.
Yes. I feel like spamming my own blog….”I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…”
Ah, Olorin, the Handsome Gray Lion! Maybe HE should run for President! Alas, he wouldn’t. His popularity would grow exponentially!
And, yes Dan, reminds me of more spam…free new job program pics…free new alternative energy pics…free strengthen the labor movement pics….free naked potential first lady pics…
Wait! Delete that last comment! My chances of getting hired at $15,000 a month as a consultant for his campaign will be ruined if I start talking like that, and I need the cash! Or, maybe I’ll GET the consulting gig for such a brilliant media strategy! Clearly, I gutta say, in all fairness, at least Mr. K. is willing to entertain questions like the ones W. asked. Would Mrs. NAFTA?
Poor Kuchinch -he means well, but he doesn’t have a clue.
Where oh where is Thomas Jefferson (or his equivalent) when he is needed? Instead we have a field with Mr. UFO, Mrs. NAFTA, Mr. New York Gangster, and Mr. Mormon.
I’m not sure which scares me most!
Politicians today have 3 main jobs, get elected, stay elected, and rake in as much campaign funding (cloaked bribes) as possible. Public service is number 87 on the list. It is like the car or house salesperson who needs to make this next sale to get their monthly quota, and next paycheck, they will tell you what ever you want to hear. Miles per gallon? Sure it gets 48 miles per gallon(going down a steep hill at 32 mph with a 75 mile per hour tailwind). Bad neighborhood? No the newpapers lump together several areas for reporting to save on having extra reporters, they just got it mixed up with one 7 miles over.
Facts don’t matter. Just appear to the great masses and appear sincere in your pronouncements, figure out later what 10% of your promises you will deliver on to say you fulfilled your goals. No politician gets elected by promising less. Corporate CEOs and politicians must all go to the same school that teaches them to use the word “growth” in every other sentence. Unfortunately as this unravels over the next 10 years or so, some really bad folks will come along promising to bring back the “good old days” (today) if you will just put them in office and give them the extra tools (power) to deal with the problems. History repeats itself. Look at how Hitler rose to power, promising a return to economic stability and a restoration of national pride. The political sideshow that we see going on will only get worse, with bigger and bolder lies and half truths.
Where to start? It’s not worth trying to address his “growth without sacrifice” dream. Dennis Kucinich is a yet another case of someone having his/her heart in the right place but maintaining a tenuous connection between that place and reality. Would that wishing things were would make them so. Unfortunately, facts and logic are pesky things and the problems of economics, environment and resource depletion are not simple and easily dealt with.
Globalization can’t be halted like turning off a light. Our society values have to change if we wish to re-invigorate our manufacturing base. Innovative scientific development can address oil and natural gas depletion issues, but only as constrained by the laws of physics and economics . . . and human ingenuity. There is merit to his comment about “shortening the path of development”, but that only pays off when there is something already there to develop. The classic case everyone cites are the space programs of the US and USSR in the 1960’s. Both Korielev and Von Braun used the WW2 German research as the starting point, and both programs were not primarily scientific accomplishments, but were really engineering accomplishments. Both the Saturn V and Energia were up-sized versions of 20 year-old designs.
Dennis needs to do his homework and come up with some specifics. List specifically what he thinks needs to be done, outline paths for accomplishment, and present how things will be paid for. Otherwise, he would be well advised to get off the train.
Once again, I’m reminded – things can change. Just this evening I was telling someone that IF I bothered to cast a presidential election ballot, my list was down to three choices: Ralph Nader ["Don't blame ME. I voted for Nader!"] Ron Paul [He's courageous and apparently honest.] Dennis Kucinich [He's spunky and got a good heart, and a beautiful wife.]
So, I’m self-humilated, as usual. Hoise on my old fondue skewer. My learned-lesson for today: Just like me – Tall, attractive, red-haired English girls will suffer lapses of judgement.
Today is a day of revelations. A’moment, I see that my erstwhile hero, Mr. Nader, while honest and certainly courageous, is perenially out-of-touch with reality. This is a re-realization, one I’d had twenty years back, but had lost, in my swoon over Nader’s gutsiness back in 2000. Unlike most of the usual “presidential” candidate-tripe [outfitted with $80-neckties and stuffed full-of-cash], Ralph was willing to talk about some REAL PROBLEM issues like the so-called “Free-Trade Agreements”. Unfortunately, Ralph’s grasp of physics was too small to understand that C-O-R-N-U-C-O-P-I-A-D does NOT spell “natural law”. I forgot that, back in election year 2000. To be fair though, the apparent choice of pigs waren’t good.
And, to continue with a spirit of fairness, we’ve nearly all of us grown up in what appears to be the Cornucopiad. Assuming Ralph and Dennis believe it [little doubt in my mind], enough of the rest of us have grown up in the Disneyland of, “If you wish upon a star, your dreams [will] come true!” We’ve lived most of our lives, not only in a land of plenty, but in a land of INCREASING plenty. The gods must laugh at our foolish expectation [mine] that any politician who fails to promise us SKY PIE will be anything but a dead rat – D.O.A. on election day.
Dennis Kucinich is much like Dick Cheney. Well, in one way. They’re both delusional. The main difference is that one is blatently frightening, while the other is only latently frightening, but otherwise cute.
Dennis and Dick have probably both been shaped by traumatic deprivation. Don’t know anything about Dick’s formative years, but, in his case, significant deprivation of something VITAL, screams at the most casual passing analyst. In Dennis’s case, it might be related to an unfortunate coincidence of too-frequent childhood nutritional deficiency, along with a “Pollyanna” mindset that would have lent survival-strength to a childhood spent living, part-time, with his family, in a car.
So, if any of this pony show is, in the least, relevant, and one chooses to participate in the national electoral circus, Ron Paul might be, not only a decent candidate, but an electable one, if Republican voters would only be so brilliant as to annoint him with their votes. If I might babble on – a match between Ron Paul and Hillary Clinton would be most interesting. Given the choice, if the presidential election were tomorrow, I would not only vote for Ron Paul, I might even BET on him. But, then again, I say such foolish things without consideration of what the press-masters would do to Candidate Paul. And, if he survived election by some miracle, I can imagine NO Miracle that could save him from the same fate that greeted Jack Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin King, Malcolm X, John Lennon, or Paul Wellstone. Amerikan politics may be a little more civilized than Russian politics, but I’m beginning to believe that less as I pack on the years.
Al Gore, for example, WILL NOT RUN, unless he should happen to suffer some mental breakdown that renders him “messiah complexed”. You can be popular. Or you can be powerful, in this Amerika, but you may not be both. Anyone attempting to represent the real interests of the people [ a POPULIST ] will be, as they used to say back in Soviet Russia, “neutralized”. If you are FOR the commonweal, you are AGAINST the will and power of the “New World Order” that “Dick Cheney’s Dummy’s” daddy talked about nearly 20 years ago. To lift another G.H.W.Bush line: “This will not stand!” No, it won’t with the ” N.W.O.” the Old Man alluded to.
What a silly thing to be talking about when we need to be thinking of how we can survive in a world that has begun turning all the conventional economic formulae on their heads. National politics, it seems at this late hour, is a phenomenon that we have little control over, given feeble human nature, the scale of manifold problems, and the power of our “unseen governors”. The forces of nature are going to become our new masters. Again.
But, as long as we live, we will talk about silly things. And, I’m reminded, things can change.