Dennis Kucinich: Yeah, I mean, to actually have time to just
sit down and think things through. I'm
doing some writing right now, and to be able to just slow everything down. You don't have that chance in Congress! And I'm sure the President doesn't have that
chance. Everything is happening very
quickly. And there's a sense in which
the world of events is illusory. Things
are happening, yes, they're real, they have real effects, but there's another
reality that we sometimes get pulled away from by getting caught up in the
tempo of events.
I've
experienced this myself, in a career that goes back to 1967. It's almost like a narcotic, you can be
involved in everything, OK. But then you
may not really have that much of an effect on anything! And you may overlook those things that might
be the most important things in your life, but not be aware of it. That's the
problem with thinking that somehow you have the ability to change the course of
human events from a single public office.
Our history will show us that our lives have been changed often by
people who never held a public office.
But,
we need not minimize how important it is to have individuals who serve this
country who have a sense of perspective, and who don't forget what it's like to
be just an ordinary human being who is just trying to make ends meet, support
his or her family, and live out their lives in peace and security. It's not bad being away from Congress. It's been three full weeks and more, and it's
OK. I will be just as involved and
perhaps, in slowing things down, be able to go a little bit deeper in my
analysis of what's happening.
Rob Kall: Do you have any organizations or people who
you want to give a shout out to, who you think are doing a good job? Who you want to support, at all?
Dennis Kucinich: Well, before I leave here, the one thing I
want to talk about is: now that I'm out of Congress, I have a chance to work a
little more closely on a range of matters with my wife, Elizabeth. And I am so fortunate, because she is so
bright, and has been so committed to an entire range of matters relating to
agricultural policy and diet, nutrition, animal rights, she's with the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine. And
I hope to be helping her out as well, because we're a partnership, we're going
to be working together on some things, and I'm grateful for her council. We have a chance to actually spend more time
together, which is great (laughs), because the demands of holding a public
office, as anyone who has ever served knows, it can take you away from friends
and family, and so it's nice to be back home.
Rob Kall: When you were running for President, I spent
a day driving, and it boggles my mind, the stamina that you had to have, what
it involves day to day, and I know it's not just running for President, the
same thing is like that in Congress so, God, it's got to be a nice break. And I've met Elizabeth and she's an
extraordinary lady. It's nice that you
have time.
Dennis Kucinich: She is.
And we're using it to continue our commitment to the world. This opportunity to have an in-depth
discussion with you is very helpful, because it helps me to recall in this
conversation what it is that animates my involvement. That, I really do care about the world and
about individuals, and I see the potential for things being dramatically
different than they are now. But we have
to have an awareness of America, our country, our history, our position in the
world, and be able to look a the world anew every day with a set of fresh eyes;
not being hampered by old thinking which is either partisan or ideological, but
one which can contemplate the possibility of a world that's awesome.
Rob Kall: I love the idea, but the other side of it is:
we're facing a situation, we've got a world where a handful of billionaires
have incredible power and wealth. Some
of those billionaires have power that has roots going back a hundred or more
years, and we've got systems in place that seem unbreakable. We should be breaking up the Too Big To Fail
banks. I've been talking with Thom
Hartmann and Greg Palast about the idea of getting rid of billionaires, making
it so that it's against the law. What do
you think about that? And this whole
challenge of this massive banking system?
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