Wake Up Torchbearers
by Stephen Dinan
 stephen@radicalspirit.org

I often speak in softer tones in my articles, but today I write to you with fire.

Now is the time to awaken from playing victim, whining about the media, and scurrying about in a vain search for a sufficiently popular Democratic candidate. The voices for true progress are NEVER popular until the changes they carry forward are finished. History then looks back at them as heroes. Torchbearers who behave like sheep are not torchbearers. Torchbearers call a country forward with the sheer intensity of their will, the vastness of their heart, and the clarity of their vision.

When you succumb to discussions of electability, you are putting down your torch. You are wimping out on the larger mission. You are shrinking yourself to fit a socially conditioned box and you will not accomplish what you dream possible. You are effectively saying, "I can't do it, it's too hard."

The behavior of most Democrats these last months has been that of sheep, scurrying around and baaing about electability while chasing one candidate and then the next in an attempt to find out who is popular enough to beat Bush. But popularity is a function of which way the scared herd runs next, so it's an ever-shifting target. The main tool to motivate this herd has become endless rhetoric about winning, until most of the candidates sound more like football quarterbacks before a game than presidents. We are capable of more than this. We should demand more than this.



What most of those behaving like sheep do not seem to realize is that the wolf is strengthened by sheep behavior. Our insecurity is what will defeat us. Our power comes in finding our boldest, most authentic truth and standing passionately for that in the world.

Deep down, none of you are truly sheep. You are ALL lions who believe yourselves to be powerless and thus behave as sheep. Each of you is capable of greatness. Sheep behavior is a relic of your past. Let it drop away and stand as the leader you really are.

Our planet cannot wait for more conscious leadership in America. It has become a survival imperative that we grow into the next stage of our maturity. Our country must grow into adulthood, when we stand with dedicated commitment to compassionate, responsible leadership in the world. It is time for America to lead the world forward in healing ecosystems, eliminating war, treating the sick, dismantling nukes, feeding the hungry, and balancing the economic scales. Right now, we lead the world militarily and economically and lag badly morally. That simply has to change.

We are the only country powerful enough to lead the world to its next level of maturity and we simply cannot do it without a president and a government infrastructure that is compassionate, wise, and just. Our days of adolescent braggadocio must end, unless we want to run the planet into the ground. Bush and the corporate cronyism that buoys him must be relegated to the dustbin of history.

America's growth into adulthood is not going to happen with Bush at the helm OR with any of the media-chosen front-runner Democratic candidates. The media has dubbed them the chosen ones largely because they represent the status quo. They do not represent a fundamental advance but a slight improvement in the left-right swing of the pendulum. What we need at this point in history is PROGRESS. Real, authentic, deep progress on all fronts. The "main" candidates are not torchbearers for fundamental progress:

1. Dean carried the flag of transformation for a time but the simple fact is that he's not the real McCoy. He sensed the movement, spoke to the movement, rallied the movement but he lacks the vision, depth, and wisdom to lead the next stage. He's not particularly environmental or socially aware, and now he's in bed with the very folks he claimed to be usurping, which is how much of Vermont viewed him as a governor. The language of a revolutionary does not a revolutionary make. Dean's high-spending, rhetoric-fueled campaign is careening downwards. It should be honored for the gifts it brought, but it's not going to lead us to the next stage.
2. Kerry is a well-groomed puppet of the status quo who has now discovered the magic of speaking the language the herd wants to hear. I expect him to be knocked down as the public faces his real record: the MOST money from special interests of any senator in the last 15 years, Yale pedigree (even a member of the same secret society as Bush), big bucks, backing of the Iraq war, and a tendency to make grand statements and do little. A classic politician. The honeymoon will end. Anyone who is really committed to evolutionary change in America will see he's mainly a lateral move.
3. Clark is a fine seeming guy, but leading us to the next stage of maturity as a country is beyond him. He can hardly figure out whether he's a Democrat much less what his vision is for a revitalized America. Generals are meant to take orders from a Commander-in-Chief rather than vice versa. He's also green in politics and the presidency is a dangerous place for on-the-job training. Clark will not maintain the enthusiasm of real torchbearers for long. I wonder how long Michael Moore will last on his team once he no longer seems like "the winner."
4. Edwards is basically Dennis Kucinich's understudy. He simply takes planks from Dennis' platform, one by one, and delivers them with Southern charm and a handsome mug. Once the romance wears off, I suspect people will see him as a viable vice president. However, he doesn't have the experience, vision, or evolutionary compass to lead America's next stage.
5. Lieberman seems to be a moral and decent man but he's part of a dinosaur culture headed for extinction. He's not a torchbearer for tomorrow.
6. Rev. Sharpton is an exciting leader but he doesn't have chops. He would have no idea how to be the most important legislator in the world. But it's fun and morally uplifting to have him in the race.

That leaves us with Dennis Kucinich.

Dennis Kucinich is the ONLY Democratic candidate who is taking a powerful stand for America's next stage of maturity on every front. He has the specific platforms and programs that will create America's next stage. He's also got the experience on local, state, and national levels to govern. He is committed to going beyond war, to creating a sustainable energy economy, and to healing the social ills of our country. He walks his talk and stands up, even when that is not popular. He is also a world-centric leader, not just focused on narrow American interests. He's our first real opportunity for a planetary leader of wisdom and integrity at the helm of America.

Dennis is a major leap forward in a way that none of the other candidates are.
And he can win if the forces working for real change rally around him this month. It's got to happen fast. He's the leader we need but most people who can see this are still trapped in a belief system that we can't elect the man we really need. That is simply not true. Truth and justice eventually DO win. Always. Look at the track record, from abolishing slavery to winning the right for women to vote to ending gay bashing. Progress always wins at SOME point. That point can be now.

To do so will take shedding the sheep behavior and standing as a torchbearers. I say this to all of you who are working for positive change. If you don't stand up, you are failing your mission.

I maintain that if you care about sustainability and you are not passionately devoted to advancing the campaign of a man who is committed to 20% renewable energy by 2010 and walks his talk with a vegan diet and simple lifestyle, then you are wimping out.

I maintain that if you care about social justice issues and you are not blasting your email networks with words about a candidate who is committed to universal health care, repealing the tax giveaway to the rich, and redressing social ills across the board, then you are wimping out.

I maintain that if you care about consciousness and personal growth and you are too wrapped up enjoying the burble of your hottub to mobilize for the first truly conscious Presidential candidate we've ever had, then you are wimping out.

I maintain that if you are marching for peace and not shouting Dennis' name from the rooftops as the man who will get us out of Iraq and create a Department of Peace to make war archaic, then you are wimping out.

I maintain that if you are fighting corporate abuses and not trumpeting the importance of getting behind Dennis Kucinich, who has made a career of taking on corrupt corporations, then you are wimping out.

The worst, honestly, have been the leaders of the movements for positive change. While a wide range of them have endorsed Dennis publicly, they walk around like sheep saying, "I don't think he can win." They are not promoting him actively. They don't email anything to their troops. They don't rally their networks. They haven't started building the planks of the new White House. They just sign their names and disappear, as if the sheer majesty of their name is enough. They seem more content to work on some little area of change and complain about big picture issues than to dare, to risk, to rally for a man who can actually accomplish what they want to see in the world by leading this country.

Our progressive and spiritual leaders have wimped out on us this election, just when we really need it most. Some of them may come back around to being torchbearers for this election. However, many of them likely won't. It is up to everyone else to take up the torches that they are dropping until the herd gallops in Dennis direction.

Once the herd is turned by the torchbearers, every change leader will triumphantly claim that they've backed him all along but the ones who have been putting the money, sweat, and soul power into carrying the torch will know who really elected the man. It's not the sheep. It will be the torchbearers. Which can include you.

Now tell me, do you want to look back on one of the most pivotal elections this planet has ever seen and know that you were one of the sheep rather than one of the torchbearers? What if Bush is far weaker than he seems and ANY Democrat will win. What if the existence of such an exaggerated version of the last stage of America is precisely what can catapult into the next, and, at precisely the moment when boldness is possible, we choose the safest, most centrist of the bunch? How large a failure would that be? What if a safe, centrist military man keeps the juggernaut happily rolling forward to our ecological demise?

And what if the whole sheepish dialogue was precisely what ensured the global breakdowns we were so afraid of?

Our biggest failure may be in electing Kerry (or Clark or Dean) precisely when we need someone bold, visionary, and amazing to inspire America again to make our transition into adulthood. The Big Four candidates are simply not going to do it. The media is not going to do it. WE are the only ones who can do it and it will happen by galvanizing all the forces for social, ecological, and planetary transformation around Dennis Kucinich's campaign. Now.