Rep. Dennis Kucinich Addresses NWroots in Seattle from David Goldstein on Vimeo.
Seattle has this progressive spirit which Jim McDermott has helped keep alive, and other members of the delegation have been here as leaders in so many important areas. This is a place where great ideas can be born and spread across the country from the northwest corner across America.
What brought me into politics is a belief that my life doesn't belong just to me, but it belongs to the community; the country; the world. I see the world as one. I comprehend the world as being interconnected and interdependent, and understand the imperative of human unity.
This is why I challenge the very notion of war – that the very idea that war is acceptable needs to be challenged. This is why I challenge an economy that seems to be taking all of the power of government and using it to help accelerate the wealth of the nation upwards. This is why I believe that a fundamental precept of economic justice in America calls for a full employment economy. At a time when we have over 14 million Americans out of work; when the recent jobs report showed unemployment inching towards 9.3%, and yet it would be higher than that if you add another 272,000 people that aren't even looking for work any more. They gave up trying. When you have another 12 million people who are underemployed, or working part-time in jobs where they want full-time. So you are looking at over 26 million people, in this nation, whose productive capacity isn't being tapped. That's a national tragedy. There is no other way to describe it.
And yet, in 1932, a person came to the White House who understood that there is a way to get America on its feet, and he crafted a New Deal. We need a second New Deal right now in America to put America back to work, rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our water systems, our sewer systems, new public transportation systems. There is over $3 trillion of infrastructure work that has to be done, but we have to have the determination to do it.
Wall Street believes there is a certain amount of unemployment that is necessary for the proper functioning of the economy. What a bunch of junk. The fact of the matter is it's easy for those economists to say that, they have a job. But what about the 14 million people that don't have any work at all? What are we doing for them? When the private sector doesn't provide the job opportunities, and it keeps shedding workers, I say our government has a moral responsibility to help people find work and to create the jobs that are necessary to rebuild America.
Now the minute you start talking about jobs, and public programs, people are saying "how are you going to pay for it?" It's funny they don't ask that question about war. No one asks where we are going to get the three trillion dollars that the war in Iraq will cost, the trillion dollars the war in Afghanistan has already cost, the billion dollars the war in Libya will cost by September, how we are going to keep paying for the drones that are over Pakistan, and Yemen, and God knows where. We have seen an increasing militarization, not only of our society, but more importantly of our budget, because then that reflects a deeper, structural change in our society. We need to get out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan, out of Libya, out of all of these countries where we try to tell people what kind of government they should have. It's time we started to pay attention to things here at home and determine what kind of government we want in America.
Why was Congressman Kucinich speaking in Seattle? His district in Ohio may be eliminated, and Washington is adding a district. (And, by the way, because I invited him). I, for one, am perfectly okay with him running in the soon to be created 10th District in Washington, if that is the way it plays out.