Seabiscuit Goes to Washington: On Hope, Vision, and Politics

Most of the time it is so incredibly disheartening to listen to these candidates dance around the issues, strutting around like roosters trying to show who’s the toughest – trying to prove that they are the ones who can save us from “those evildoers.” I can barely stand to watch them as they try to outdo each other: “I won’t talk to Iran for my first year in office,” “I’ll bomb Pakistan,” “I’ll protect marriage” (if they were serious about that maybe they should try outlawing divorce. But I digress…)

Why is it that most of us feel that we can’t do better than this? How is it that so many of us think that one party is that different from the other, that if only our party’s candidate could get in, that things will be so much better? How is it that something like the “Patriot” Act got through so fast, and so many people in Congress voted for it without even reading it? How could so many of them have voted to support the war, when the contradictory information that was reported so belatedly by the mainstream press was already there in the alternative media? Where were they? Is this really the best we can do?

While it’s true that since the Democrats took back the power in Congress, at least they have started investigations and introduced bills that do have some connection to what voters called for so loudly in the recent elections. But how is it that still they sent even more money and troops to Iraq, when it is clear to the vast majority of American people (if not their “leaders”) that we cannot “fix it” by staying? How is it that Clinton was impeached for lying about sex, when the current administration’s lies have caused death and destruction on such a massive scale? Why are they still barely being challenged for such blatant violations of international law and the Constitution? How is it that we are still, as a nation, spending billions of dollars every month on a war that, according to the non-profit Just Foreign Policy, has now reportedly killed close to a million Iraqis?

Just take a moment. Let that sink in.

I can’t even wrap my mind around it. And millions more are displaced. While here in the U.S. we have pathetic health care options for so many of us, schools struggling, bridges collapsing and many more in need of repair, the Katrina fiasco, and on and on… A friend’s car asks a really important question in big letters painted on the side: “What would you do with $450 billion?” Think about it. And if you go to costofwar.com you can see how much has been spent locally. At the time of this writing, my state has spent over 57 billion dollars, and my county has spent over $1.6 billion. What would you do with that money?

I know that not everyone agrees about Iraq, and we can draw many lines to divide ourselves when we talk about abortion, gay marriage, and so on. But I think that the vast majority of people – “liberal” or “conservative” – value children, the environment, education, housing, health care, etc. And I suspect that a huge number of people in this country, not to mention the rest of the world, think that our system is badly broken (if not totally insane…) I think for so many people that it just seems so hopeless. We don’t even dare to dream anymore.

And then there is Dennis Kucinich. Something in my heart comes alive when I hear him speak, when I watch him in the debates so clearly and passionately saying the things that need to be said – the things that no-one else is saying. In a recent debate he promised that in his first month in office he would cancel NAFTA and the WTO, and instead, to trade based on workers’ rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. He would also establish a not-for-profit healthcare system and focus on saving Social Security.

Dennis Kucinich was the one to introduce articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney. He interrogated Rumsfeld about his management of war news. Kucinich has been working for years to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. Some of the key issues on his website include Universal Health Care; International Cooperation (US out of Iraq, UN in); Guaranteed Quality Education, Pre-K Through College; Repeal of the "Patriot Act;" Environmental Renewal and Clean Energy; and Balance Between Workers and Corporations. He supports the use of medical marijuana, as well as re-legalizing the commercial growing of industrial hemp. He also addresses depleted uranium, sweat shops, and media reform. These are issues that are vitally important to me.

Recently he said, “I’m kind of the Seabiscuit of this campaign,” (referring to the underrated racehorse from the 1930s). Hearing him say that sparked my imagination, and rekindled that little flame of hope that – in spite of everything – never quite dies...

So – who or what is your Seabiscuit? What is your vision for this country? How would you act, how would you vote, if you started to believe that what you long for might actually be possible?

A version of this article was previously posted on ojaipost.com