Kucinich At The Heartland Presidential Forum

Kucinich addressed a crowd of over 5,000 citizens today in Iowa, at the Heartland Presidential Forum. He was in good company, as the gathering of community and political leaders and Democratic Party activists involved in the forum announced as their priorities, including: “health care for everybody,” the “right to a living wage,” workers’ rights, an end to corporate control of government, and the adoption of progressive immigration reforms that “don’t use immigrants as scapegoats” for failed federal policies-all bread and butter stump issues for Kucinich and, further, the issues that along with the war/occupation and civil liberties best distignuish him as the leading Democrat:

One especially poignant moment dramatically reflected the affinity between the coalition’s populist agenda and Kucinich’s deep involvement in those same issues. A community leader from Iowa recounted the events of Dec. 12 , 2006, when federal immigration authorities raided a plant in search of undocumented immigrants. Among those detained and exiled to Mexico was the mother of five small children who lived in a modest home with her husband. It happened, the speaker said, her voice choked with emotion, on the hallowed feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Kucinich walked across the stage and asked her to look at his watch. “What does it say?” he asked her. “It’s Our Lady of Guadalupe,” she responded. Kucinich said the watch was a gift from friends in El Paso, Texas four years ago “when I was standing up for the rights of immigrants.” The crowd’s reaction swelled from sighs and gasps to sustained applause and cheering.

Kucinich has been leading on Immigration issues, from his rousing speech at the Latino Congresso to his vote against the S-CHIP that left out over 600,000 children of LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

Accountability and special interest reform was also highlighted by Kucinich when he drew cheers and applause regarding impeachment and talked about his career-long battle with the corrupt influence of special interests on our political process:

“As Mayor of Cleveland, I put my career on the line to save a municipal electric system” from a corporate take-over, Kucinich said.

That same public-interest philosophy, he elaborated, has given him the strength to challenge the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and call for a national, not-for-profit program that covers all Americans. His opposition to corporate-backed trade agreements that have off-shored millions of U.S. jobs is part of that same philosophy, he said. And, the war in Iraq was motivated by a political and corporate thirst for oil, the same motivations that allow oil and gas companies to exploit federally owned lands in the U.S., he said.

The surest route to ending the monied-control of politics and government is public financing of elections; and, he said, he would push for a Constitutional amendment to ensure that federal campaigns were publicly, rather than privately financed.

“It’s your government,” he said, “Take it back,” he concluded to thunderous applause and a standing ovation.