Dennis Kucinich and the "Wake Up America" speech
Since about February, I've done my level best to ignore this presidential campaign, and this week, I'm doing my best to ignore the Democratic Convention. The horrible choices of candidates and the scripted pageant happening in Denver have stripped this election of any optimism I might have once held about the next four years. The outcome of this election has been set since the spring, and because the inevitable McCain presidency is too depressing to think about, I've done my very best to dwell on other things.
But tonight, Dennis Kucinich delivered a barn-burner of a speech in Denver. Ranking right up there with Ann Richards's "Poor George" speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention, Kucinich rallies the country to "wake up" and pay attention to the depravity currently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added $4 trillion of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care.
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil.
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The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America!
The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing. Wake up, America!
The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up, America! They want to take your Social Security. Wake up, America! Multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost. Wake up, America!
Watch the speech here:
This man needs to replace Pelosi as Speaker of the House. We need a House leader with the spine to tell it like it is and to stand up to the henchmen of the right. Pelosi is not that person, but Dennis Kucinich certainly is.