Is Dennis Kucinich Serious?

In some ways, Dennis Kucinich is made for this moment in Democratic politics. Like Senator Bernie Sanders, the quirky former Ohio congressman embodied progressive populism long before its current vogue. He ran on single-payer healthcare, free college, and gay marriage as a presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008—years when all those ideas remained decidedly outside the political mainstream. Kucinich was ahead of the curve on opposing the Iraq war and the North American Free Trade Agreement, protecting the environment, and even embracing veganism. For all his idiosyncrasies—he claimed in a nationally televised debate that he'd seen a UFO, and proposed an official Department of Peace—his liberal peers were fond of him. “At the end of the day, we're really going to miss Dennis. Dennis is a transformative leader,”Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, now the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, told Politico before Kucinich left Congress in 2013. “He stood up and spoke eloquently, passionately about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran. He was a consistent voice for peace.”