An Audacious Peacemaker -Updated-

Representative Dennis Kucinich said this in the latest presidential debate:

With all due respect to our friends from the media here, the media itself has to be careful how you frame these questions. We don't want to be put in a position where we are taking this country to the threshold of war. The media did play a role in taking us into war in Iraq, and I'm urging the members of the media to urge restraint upon you and our president, whose rhetoric is out of control.

I would go to Iran and I would urge Iran not just to not have nuclear weapons; I would urge them to give up nuclear power because nuclear power is the most expensive type of power there is. It is not a sustainable type of power because of the cost of it. It -- it is unsafe. I would urge Iran to give up nuclear power.

But I would also do -- do something further. It is time that the United States government enforced and -- and participated in fully the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.

We must lead the way and we must have a president who understands the danger of these nuclear weapons, and have America lead the way among all nations towards nuclear abolition. When we do that, we will have the credibility to go to an Iran, and any other nation that may have desire for a nuclear power, to say, look, we want to take it in a different direction; we are not going to stand by and watch our country lost because we are ratcheting up the rhetoric towards war against Iran.

We have to stop this, Tim. We have to stop ratcheting up the rhetoric for war. We really need to stop it.

Despite his low polling and repeated ridicule in the media, Kucinich refuses to play the deceptive and hypocritical games that are required to advance to the front of political races, and this frees him to speak his mind and, even better, speak critically of the ideas and actions of those who shape our cultural and political thinking. This also means he'll never be president.

Here and elsewhere he admonishes the media for uncritically advancing the language of the politicians in power. I'm sure they'll respond kindly. Kucinich also holds the U.S. to the same standard he holds the other nations of the world, a virtue that won't win him support from those who shudder at the thought that the U.S. should ever be blamed first for anything.

I'm not a supporter of his campaign and some of his ideas, but I admire his fortitude and willingness to speak in politically "inexpedient" terms, his sincere desire to help his neighbor, and his audacious endeavors to establish peace.