By David Alire Garcia
Of the Journal
FARMINGTON— Dennis Kucinich didn't win the Iowa caucus Monday. The four-term Ohio congressman didn't even finish in the top four.
This wasn't a big surprise. Most of the political "in" crowd dismissed his chances long ago. They charge that he's too radical, too extreme.
Kucinich was in Farmington on Saturday morning to pick up an endorsement from a coalition of Navajo organizations. In an interview after his speech, he made the obligatory victory prediction.
"I win the election at the convention," he said.
But when the candidate came up in a recent conversation with a New Mexico activist who works for one of the other Democratic candidates for president, he described Kucinich supporters this way: "You mean cuckoos for Kucinich?"
Not very nice, but again, not a surprise.
Of course, put-downs from rival campaigns are expected, but after spending a morning with Kucinich, I was left wondering why he's so easily dismissed. Especially as the nation is in midst of celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., a revered American who condemned war much more strongly than Kucinich did Saturday.
During his 15-minute speech at the Farmington Civic Center, Kucinich touted his proposal for a cabinet-level Department of Peace. He said it would help "create a culture of peace that directly connects with the ambitions and the hopes of the Navajo people who understand that peace is the basis by which we sustain the world."
After highlighting other ideas— a major new investment in public works, not-for-profit health care for everyone and universal pre-kindergarten for all children— Kucinich returned to his main theme.
"We can do away with war," he said.
On Thursday, President Bush laid a wreath on King's grave at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, said the gesture was a way to pay tribute to "Dr. King's legacy, his vision and his lifetime of service."
Several hundred protesters pointed to what they saw as a contradiction.
This is the same King who strongly opposed the Vietnam War in 1967 and preached nonviolence at every turn.
"We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers," King said.
During his speech, Kucinich spoke of "nonviolence as the central organizing principle."
But why is such talk dismissed as radical today?
Kucinich's one word answer: "Fear."
"This world is a place where fear is constantly being evoked so sometimes we become much more comfortable holding on to fear than we are in embracing the possibility that we don't have to be fearful."
On the way to the airport, Kucinich pointed to Iraq to make his point sharper.
"Our troops are in Iraq right now (and) $155 billion has been spent on a war we didn't have to fight," he said. "We spend $400 billion a year to build up a military, and this country is taking more and more of its treasure and putting it in that direction because people don't know there's another way."
King talked of another way— and walked the talk.
Kucinich is no King and neither does he pretend to be. But on peace and nonviolence, he's every bit the radical, even as King today is mainstream and celebrated.
King freely admitted, "I'm not a consensus leader." Instead, he claimed to be a "molder of consensus." And he wasn't running for president.
Kucinich is. Maybe that's his biggest problem.
But even as he boarded his plane in Farmington, it's easy to tell that he thinks it's his biggest opportunity.
Write to P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103. E-Mail: daliregarcia@abqjournal.com.
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