Orange County Welcomes Cynthia McKinney with Big Arms

On February 27, 2007, the Patrick Henry Democratic Club of America's presentation of the Congresswoman of the Year Award to Cynthia McKinney was the event to attend in Southern California. Orange Countians rushed to fill the Anaheim Unitarian Universalist Church. They were joined by people who drove from San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, eager to see Ms. McKinney.

The warm welcome proved that Cynthia McKinney is extremely popular, even in California's most conservative County of Orange. Watch out, Loretta Sanchez. One of the topics of discussion was a call for Ms. McKinney to move to California and become part of the Congressional delegation here.

Democrats, fed up Nancy Pelosi's catering to the Bush Administration by taking impeachment off the table and her continual funding of the war effort encouraged Ms. McKinney to run in San Francisco, where a challenge to Pelosi could derail her next election. Pelosi generally runs unopposed and has become unpopular with progressive Democrats in San Francisco, a city filled with progressive Democrats.

The Green Party has asked Ms. McKinney to run as its nominee for President of the United States. Ms. McKinney has not expressed interest. However, a McKinney bid for the White House on the Green ticket would draw a significant number of votes from the major parties and could result in an upset - unless the Democrats nominate their only liberal candidate, Dennis Kucinich.

Most progressive Democrats have expressed an unwillingness to vote for Edwards, Obama, Hillary Clinton or Richardson. That leaves them Kucinich and Gavel. Gavel has already said that he doesn't care about winning. Gavel supports replacing the income tax with a sales tax that most progressives oppose. The rich would share little of the tax burden if the income tax were removed. The poor would pay considerably more for family needs under a sales tax system that makes up for a lack of an income tax. Kucinich has the support of the peace activist community and those interested in social justice. McKinney could easily upstage any Democratic nominee other than Dennis Kucinich.

Cynthia McKinney is the only member of Congress who has dared to stand up and ask the hard questions about 9/11. Families of victims, firefighters, scientists, and engineers are among those who do not believe the Administrations story about 9/11. She is the only member of Congress to file impeachment legislation against Bush. This legislation also included Cheney and Rice. People across America are wondering why Pelosi is standing with Bush against impeachment and opposing the will of the American people.

The Patrick Henry Democratic Club is the only organization regularly brings popular progressive leaders to Orange County. Its members are very active in Democratic politics both in Orange County and California.

A news article about the event that includes more details of the evening can be found at http://creativeyouth.net/mckinneywinsaward.html