# Kucinich and communism **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 1, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805 "2004-08-01T02:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/1 "2004-08-01T02:13:06Z")
Okay. Heres hoping this is the correct forum for this. My neighbors were conversing this afternoon while one was cleaning his window and the other getting ready to go out. They were discussing the convention, especially Kucinich (my homeboy). The one who is quite opinionated politically said Dennis creeped him out with talk of changing the economy and starting over from an equal standpoint, which to him meant communism. He pretty much finds Dennis to be commie, though not officially. The other guy said his comments sounded Hitleresque. Now, I missed Dennis’ speech, and never really listened to any of Hitlers. What exactly like Dennis say, and did it imply he wanted to make the American economy communistic? if reality got bizarre and he actually was elected. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/2 "2004-08-01T02:44:48Z")
I didn’t listen to the speach either, but to start with Hitler was a Fascist and despised comunism. If you start with that assumption your neighbor was talking out of his… um sorry not the pit. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/3 "2004-08-01T02:47:08Z")
they are both Bush voters, one does quite well in the field of finances. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/4 "2004-08-01T02:49:22Z")
Dennis Kucinich is not a communist. He is an elected member of the US House of Representatives. He is loved (and hated) by people from my state of Ohio. You can find more information about him at [Rep. Kucinich](http://www.house.gov/kucinich/) ---
**Author:** ![MrManfrengenfrensen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MrManfrengenfrensen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrManfrengenfrensen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/5 "2004-08-01T02:53:52Z")
Here’s the text of the speech: [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro\_stories.pl?ACCT=919191&TICK=DEMS04&STORY=/www/story/07-29-2004/0002221289&EDATE=Jul+29,+2004](http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=919191&TICK=DEMS04&STORY=/www/story/07-29-2004/0002221289&EDATE=Jul+29,+2004) It’s just filled with vague platitudes. I hardly see anything in there that indicates communism or fascism. You can also check out Kucinich’s platform here: > **[Politics Today - Powerful News, Powerful Opinions](https://kucinich.us/)** > > \[vc\_row row\_type=”parallax” parallax\_content\_width=”in\_grid” text\_align=”left” background\_image=”15621″ full\_screen\_section\_height=”no” section\_height=”650″\]\[vc\_column\]\[vc\_row\_inner row\_type=”row” type=”grid” text\_align=”left” padding\_top=”115″... While Kucinich is definitely a liberal, it’s risible to call him either a communist or a fascist. He advocates private sector solutions in a number of his policy positions, and since his is a big fan of civil liberties, I can’t see how comparisons to Hitler are anything more than mindless, uninformed smears on a decent man. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/6 "2004-08-01T02:57:08Z")
I am in Cleveland, myself, and have shaken his hand on more than 1 occaision. I was just wondering what the heck he could have said in his spech that made this guy think he MEANT he advocated communism economically. I will go read it, and will probably dismiss these guys as right wingers who dislike all liberals. Since my former Birch friend also called Dennis a commie, I can safely assume he is not one. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/7 "2004-08-01T07:54:17Z")
Communism is just a hobby he likes to engage in when he’s not too busy eating babies and kicking puppies. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/8 "2004-08-01T19:15:34Z")
From what I’ve read of him. Kucinich does seem to veer further left on economics and military issues than most of the Democratic Party establishment, plus he has a somewhat mystical idealist new agey spirituality. Green maybe, perhaps even pink, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him Red. _S_ ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/9 "2004-08-01T19:23:14Z")
Just read the speech- I’m sure it sounded better spoken than it looked when I read it. Sentence fragments galore- with a blending of sentiments echoing Marx (“workers of the world”), Jesus (“blessed are the meek”), and Lennon ("I am he and you are he and you are me and we are all together’). Maybe not Kucinich for President but definitely Kucinich for Walrus! (goo goo g’joob!) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/10 "2004-08-01T19:24:52Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > From what I’ve read of him. Kucinich does seem to veer further left on economics and military issues than most of the Democratic Party establishment, plus he has a somewhat mystical idealist new agey spirituality. Green maybe, perhaps even pink, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him Red. _S_ [http://www.kucinich.us/insideout/072804/pink.php](http://www.kucinich.us/insideout/072804/pink.php) I spoke too soon- DEFINITELY Pink! ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/11 "2004-08-01T20:41:03Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > From what I’ve read of him. Kucinich does seem to veer further left on economics and military issues than most of the Democratic Party establishment, plus he has a somewhat mystical idealist new agey spirituality. Green maybe, perhaps even pink, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him Red. _S_ Except when the right-wingers are trying to bash Kerry - _then_ all of a sudden Kerry is left of Kucinich. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/12 "2004-08-01T22:27:59Z")
I’m a member of the Socialist Party and I was active in Kucinich’s campaign this year and I’ve heard him speak in person and I know the contents of his website, and based on all this I can tell you flatly that Kucinich is not a socialist, certainly not a communist, and is not even as far to the left as Nader. He is probably the furthest-left Democrat in Congress. But I’ve never even heard him called a socialist – except by John Stewart who, in a recent primary-season retrospective on _The Daily Show,_ referred to DJK as a “socialist garden gnome.” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kucinich-and-communism/257805/13 "2004-08-02T14:49:03Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > Except when the right-wingers are trying to bash Kerry - _then_ all of a sudden Kerry is left of Kucinich. :eek: That may well be in terms of voting records, I haven’t checked. However, Kucinich’s rhetoric is definitely more liberal.