Thread: Liberal Congressman Kucinich defeated in Ohio

Originally Posted by tecoyah

Reminds me of Santorum...honestly insane.

Santorum is not insane, nor is Kucinich. I dont mind people who hold different views than I do so long as they are honest about them. Saqntorum and Kucinich are honest. Most politicians are not.

Originally Posted by Ockham

Liberal Congressman Kucinich defeated in Ohio - Business - msnbc.com


Dennis Kucinich, just a short 3 1/2 years ago who ran in the Democratic Primary for President of the United States. While certainly a sometimes inflammatory character in Congress, some in the media are lamenting over his primary loss to Kaptur in Ohio's 9th district. Given that the Democrats completed the redistricting and possibly knew that such a move would make a primary battle for Kucinich tougher than in the past, one wonders if the Dennis had done something or perhaps did not do enough after 16 years in Congress to warrant a primary win. I just came back from Cleveland OH and though I didn't meet an excessive amount of people there, those who I did speak to did not seem like the average Kucinich supporter. While redistricting may have had a hand in his failed primary bid another hand may be that his progressive style became a bit tired.

I don't really see this as a good thing. While Kucinich was extremely liberal, he was also pretty good in regards to civil liberties, and he and Ron Paul had a lot in common in this aspect.

All his loss from Congress means is that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are going to have an easier time shafting everybody who isn't a lobbyist.

Originally Posted by Kandahar

It didn't have much to do with ideology; both Kucinich and Kaptur are very liberal Democrats. It was just the redistricting. If the congressional districts were the same as last time around, both Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur would've easily retained their seats. Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.

This is exactly why we should have a computer program re-draw the congressional districts every 10 years, instead of letting congresspeople do it themselves. This kind of crap is not healthy for our democracy.

http://content.clearchannel.com/cc-c...1315958341.pdf

MK is considered a conservative democrat in many circles

Che Kookcinich is a nut in any asylum

Originally Posted by RadicalModerate

Kucinich is a prime example of a too-liberal Democrat. While I applaud him for his stand on Iraq and a few other ideas, that dude was too far off on a lot of issues. Banning handguns? Anti-factory farming? Seriously?

Factory farming *is* really disgusting and incredibly bad for the environment. But I agree it's here to stay until we have a suitable technological replacement.

And the dying breed of honest politician died just a bit more today.

Originally Posted by Ockham

Given that the Democrats completed the redistricting and possibly knew that such a move would make a primary battle for Kucinich tougher than in the past, one wonders if the Dennis had done something or perhaps did not do enough after 16 years in Congress to warrant a primary win.

A simple mistake? From your article

The reshuffling of Ohio voting boundaries by the Republican-dominated state legislature created an oddly-shaped district that stretches along the Lake Erie shore from Toledo to just east of Cleveland, forcing a primary race between the two.

I'll start worrying when Joe the Plumber wins the general election. How did he even win the nomination?

Originally Posted by Kandahar

It didn't have much to do with ideology; both Kucinich and Kaptur are very liberal Democrats. It was just the redistricting. If the congressional districts were the same as last time around, both Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur would've easily retained their seats. Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.

This is exactly why we should have a computer program re-draw the congressional districts every 10 years, instead of letting congresspeople do it themselves. This kind of crap is not healthy for our democracy.

http://content.clearchannel.com/cc-c...1315958341.pdf

That's true, but at the same time you could potentially make the same arguments about the original districts that got those two very liberal dems to begin with:

Originally Posted by TurtleDude

MK is considered a conservative democrat in many circles

Che Kookcinich is a nut in any asylum

She's rated weakly liberal along with Nancy Pelosi

That's My Congress: Liberal and Conservative Scorecard for the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress

Originally Posted by StillBallin75

That's true, but at the same time you could potentially make the same arguments about the original districts that got those two very liberal dems to begin with:

Perhaps...although the old districts were at least naturally shaped, and the residencies of both representatives were at least well within the district (whereas the new district has been unnaturally stretched all across Lake Erie specifically to include both of their residencies at either extremity). I don't know if the original map was drawn specifically to protect them, but the old districts look relatively "normal" to me.

As far as I'm concerned, we should just feed the following parameters into a computer and let it draw up the districts: The districts within each state need to have roughly the same number of people, they have to be contiguous if possible, and they have to be as square-shaped as possible. The computer then produces a new map based on those criteria, and let the chips fall where they may. It may not always be pretty, but it's fair.

I think if we did that instead of letting legislators pick their own constituents, we'd see a lot less of the grotesque gerrymandering like we see in Ohio's new 9th district.

Originally Posted by Kandahar

Factory farming *is* really disgusting and incredibly bad for the environment. But I agree it's here to stay until we have a suitable technological replacement.

I don't see what's disgusting about it necessarily, but there has been quite a bit of ingenuity in factory farms regarding recycling and preventing waste. It's far from perfect, but some credit.