Testament for a Torchbearer

On Friday, March 12, Mike Pring died in a car accident heading home from the northern California Kucinich campaign office with a final load of computers from a closing office. It is a sad moment for the campaign.

Mike was someone who blazed brightly. He was a torchbearer in the truest sense of the word. He was the kind of man who gave everything he had with joy, passion, and commitment to the larger cause. For him, a truly enlightened society - one that is sustainable, harmonious, and in alignment with the earth -- is inevitable. He lived this, breathed this, and spoke this in a way that penetrated through the veils of fear to touch people in their hearts.

The first time I met Mike, he told me. “It’s all about the love. When people feel the love at the heart of this campaign, our job is done. They will be motivated to get out and vote. They will contribute. We don’t need to do anything else, just touch them in the heart.”

He told me how he would go around to music concerts and simply look someone in the eye, smile broadly, hand them a Dennis Kucinich postcard and say, “He’s one of us.” That’s it. No more words. Not a long list of policy positions. Not a litany of strategic reasons to vote for a progressive candidate. Just a moment of human communion that let someone know that there is a politician who speaks their truth and represents their heart.

In this way, I think of Mike Pring as more of a love-worker than a campaign-worker. The campaign was merely the vehicle for Mike to encourage people through his patience, passion, and playfulness to shed their fears and believe another world is possible.

Last night, as I let the reality of his death wash over me, I cried for a long time. And I was still crying upon awakening this morning. At first I was mystified by the depth of my sadness. After all, we hadn’t know each other long. I didn’t know his history or his family. We didn’t spend time together outside the campaign. Even so, there was a depth of resonance between us, a recognition of Mike as a comrade in the larger mission to bring about a healing of this world. More than almost anyone I have met, Mike was committed to this healing without holding anything back. Day by day, he was simply going for it.

As I let myself feel the waves of sadness, I felt gratitude as well, gratitude to Mike for living the kind of life he did: for being an inspiration, for daring to dream, for laying his heart bare, for giving everything for the cause. And then a deeper awareness dawned on me. Mike’s soul chose this timing for a reason. It is no accident that he died on the night he did. One phase of the larger work is closing and another is beginning. The political campaign is winding down and the movement is gearing up. In some mysterious way that we cannot fathom, he could better serve the mission of the next phase by dying rather than living. I have no way of verifying this, but it feels true: Mike can work on the larger mission more effectively now. I began to sense that Mike’s death was a practical choice for his soul, a soul so committed to the transformation of humanity that he would willingly choose to leave his body to serve.

The afternoon that he died, we had talked on the phone. He was brimming with enthusiasm for WeConverge, our new venture that will provide tools for the movement to better organize itself and accomplish the larger mission. “We need to focus on circle work,” Mike said, “I knew from the beginning of the Kucinich campaign that circle work is the key. “Working in circles activates a deeper kind of relationship between people. Mike really understood that what we’ve been creating is more than a political movement. It is a movement of the human spirit. Community is at the core. Love is our fuel. The revolution, Mike could feel, would come when enough circles had linked together. These circles could launch a great national healing.

Mike would give anything for this transformation to happen. The previous day, we had finished a design for a postcard and gotten pricing from the printer for different sized batches. I talked to Mike on the phone about it. Without any fanfare, he said, “Let’s get 30,000 cards. I’ll cover it. I have a feeling this is going to take off very fast.” I asked him if he was sure and told him it should be a loan that gets paid back. He replied, “I’m not worried about it. It will work out. We just need to do this.”

I was touched by the selflessness in this simple action. He had already put lots of money and untold hours into the campaign. At a time when many were cutting their losses, resting, or licking their wounds, Mike didn’t even blink at the idea of spending money on launching a new venture. No questions asked, no thanks expected. It just needed to be done.

That action was the sign of a great man and typical of how he worked on the campaign. To fulfill his mission, he was willing to do whatever needed to be done. He orchestrated campaign technology. He dressed up as Uncle Sam. He toured northern California. He traveled to New Hampshire. And he spoke straight into the heart of whoever would listen, letting them know that their dreams could be made real.

On the night of Super-Tuesday, which was heartbreaking for many of us, Mike peppered me with ideas about building the movement and maintaining the momentum. He barely missed a stride. And he finished by telling me, “I’m going to be at that Convention one way or another. If not inside as a delegate, then outside on the streets.” I take solace in knowing that Mike WILL be at the Convention in the hearts of those he has touched – those inside the walls and those outside in the street.

Our greatest memorial to Mike will be to let the blazing torch of his life ignite our own torches. What if hundreds of us, or thousands, or even millions, dared to live life the way Mike did, ending each day knowing that we have done everything possible to make an enlightened society real? What if we each lived our lives as if we have a year to live, and serve in the extraordinary way Mike served this campaign for the last year of his life?

Perhaps then the society we dream of would not be in the distant future. Perhaps then we would live with joyful abandon the way he did. Perhaps then the miracle we are awaiting can be born.

We can let Mike’s death contribute to a new way of life, not only for us, but for our world. This is a gift we can give back to him. When we are willing to live our lives as filled with love, commitment, and hope as he did, we continue his work and honor his life.

It’s all about the love, Mike told me. What I want to say to him is “Thank you, Mike, for the reminder. May we carry the torch of love well.”

Not-So-Super Wednesday and Market Gorillas

Super Tuesday did not result in a Super Wednesday for many Kucinich supporters. Personally, I had to grieve this morning, allowing the blow of 4% of the primary vote in California to hit me. For months, I have been visualizing the headline, “Kucinich Wins California” throughout the day. It felt tangible, real, and achievable. However, a 4% final tally is a long way from a win. Since I have been one of the most outspoken voices for the possibility of a win, as well as spending most of my available time galvanizing supporters, creating fundraising events, inspiring leadership, mapping strategy, and writing articles, I have a touch of wounded pride as well.

I think it’s important to acknowledge the blow and feel its repercussions while also practicing aikido with it. In aikido, instead of fighting an attack directly, the goal is to blend and redirect the attacker’s energy from a stance of acceptance. Trained martial artists bring an ease and beauty to this defenseless form of defense. At the root, the training teaches the student not to lock forces with a blow but to accept it with love, redirect, and diffuse the situation. So we’ve had a blow. How do we redirect it?

The feedback from the voting public is that we haven’t broken through from a loyal core into the mainstream. We averaged about 5% of the vote in the ten states that voted on Tuesday. We can either sigh and quit or analyze it, understand the dynamics of where we are and then design strategies to continue advancing the campaign. Advancing the campaign is unlikely at this point to result in a Kucinich nomination this year. But there are many reasons to advance his campaign nonetheless. The main reason is that Dennis is more than a candidate, as I’ve argued in previous articles; he’s an exemplar and torchbearer for an emerging culture, one with new values, priorities, and policies. To the degree that he is in the spotlight, he continues to shift the Democratic party platform in the direction of progressive change. As his base increases, his power to affect activities in Washington increases. With an increased base, we are also laying the groundwork for an eventual presidency. The Democratic Party is also well served to have Dennis rally and represent the progressive base, which is a vital key to winning against Bush. Without him in the spotlight, that base begins to feel marginalized and less represented.

So there are very good reasons to continue on. However, we need to do so with intelligence. Oddly enough, one of the best resources I have found for thinking about this is Geoffrey Moore’s work on technology adoption patterns in business (Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado). We can think of Dennis as advancing a whole new technology of living on the planet, a comprehensive shift in our values and priorities. The adoption of this technology of living in the US “market” has many parallels with technology lifecycles.

Moore delineates six profiles of people: technology enthusiasts, visionaries, pragmatists, conservatives, and skeptics. In terms of actual numbers of individuals, this follows a bell curve, with more than two-thirds falling in the middle two segments of pragmatists and conservatives. Technology enthusiasts and visionaries are at the forefront of innovation, experimenting with new products, adopting products that are well-designed, interesting, or useful. They are not risk-averse.

Between them and the pragmatists lies a chasm where a high percentage of companies fail. Crossing that chasm is the key to breaking into the mainstream market since pragmatists are more risk-averse than the early adopters. They are less interested in the best technology and more interested in who is going to come out on top. They therefore look for the emergence of a gorilla that dominates the market. Once that occurs, pragmatists will rapidly buy the products of that market leader in a phase Moore calls the Tornado, a time of breakneck adoption of the new technology.

The reason pragmatists look for the emergence of a company that dominates the market is that they know that other components will start to build around that technology platform. For example, all software must be Microsoft compatible. It doesn’t matter whether Microsoft has the best software. It is the market gorilla. Investments in Microsoft-compatible software and peripherals are therefore safe. That is why pragmatists tend to move in a herd. After the pragmatists fully adopt a new technology, conservatives will follow, with the skeptics following only reluctantly.

The holy grail of marketing, then, is finding a way to cross over the chasm from the early adopter market (1-15%) where there is a great technology but slower sales, into the pragmatic market (35% or more) where there is market dominance, money, and power. Once there is enough movement across the chasm, the pragmatic market’s herd effect will quickly propel the technology into dominance. After studying hundreds of companies, Moore concludes that instead of trying to be all things to all people, the best chasm-crossing strategy is to develop a niche expertise and focus on serving the needs of that market. After dominating one market niche, others follow until the Tornado ensues and, in a swirl of intense activity, a Microsoft-like company emerges.

This gives us insight into the last seven weeks of campaigning and why Kerry is now so dominant. Many of the people who were actively involved before the primaries started were the early adopters, the passionate visionaries who believed strongly in their candidate’s superiority. The majority of voters, however, stayed in the pragmatic category, mostly the Anyone But Bush camp. They waited for someone to strongly pull away from the pack, and then they rushed to support him in the Tornado. Pragmatists aren’t interested in having the best candidate or the best platform. They are interested in power dynamics: who is dominant? Dominance then becomes self-reinforcing. As more people “adopted” Kerry, more pragmatists and eventually conservatives rushed to join. What promised to be an even race with many serious contenders rapidly evolved into a single, dominating gorilla.

So, like it or not, Kerry is now the Democratic gorilla and pragmatists will not be swayed away from him to vote for Dennis, even if they like Dennis better and even if Dennis gets MORE media exposure than Kerry now. Think of the people you know who love Macs but go with the practical PC because of the gorilla factor. Kerry is now the Microsoft-based PC. Kucinich supporters are the Macs: better product but not the dominant player. We’ve got our loyal band of visionaries and pioneers who love Dennis, but pragmatists are deaf to discussions of quality at this stage.

All of this affects our strategy for moving forward. To position Dennis for breakout into the mainstream market at some point in the future means extending our reach from the visionaries and pioneers into one constituency base that is not being adequately served by the gorilla. We need Dennis to become the main leader in one niche. As people see, respect, and value his leadership in that particular niche, Dennis gains clout for some point in the future in which the playing field has shifted, Kerry’s gorilla position is undermined, and people start looking for another potential gorilla. This might be at the end of an eight-year presidency. Or it could happen as early as this year, if something unforeseen occurs, such as scandal or a breakdown of Kerry’s campaign.

At this point, then, all we can do is establish Dennis as the leader for one market niche and wait for changing circumstances to give him an opening to step forward again as a contender for the presidency.

I maintain that the unique market position that Dennis can fill is the leader of the progressive movement, especially the Cultural Creative segment of the population that has not yet found its political power and voice. Many of these people have an ambivalent relationship to the Democratic Party as a whole since they don’t see themselves reflected in its values or policies. Some vote Democratic anyway, others rebel with third-parties, others form a block of socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republicans. And still others have stopped voting entirely.

This growing population will play an absolutely vital role in the fall election. Most of the moderate terrain in the race has been more polarized into a Bush or Anybody But Bush stance. The battle lines are drawn. However, at the other side of the Democratic Party, a lot more is in flux. Do Deaniacs abandon the party because of being ticked at the media’s treatment of their man? Does Nader gain steam? Do Kucinich supporters give up on the party? Who can get out the liberal youth vote? There is perhaps a 5-10% base of potentially disgruntled voters that can operate as a swing vote for the Democratic Party. They won’t vote for Bush but they might vote third party or stay home.

This ambivalent progressive base is key to winning the election. With Kerry’s dominance now, people will start realizing that strong progressive leadership is needed in order to solidify this base. Kerry has far too many strikes against him to be seen as a legitimate leader for this base. He’ll also be under heavy pressure to move further towards the center. Even Dean isn’t seen as credible by many progressive and/or Cultural Creative leaders. Dennis, however, is perfect, even respected by Nader. If he can establish his leadership in this segment in a way that advances its values in a substantive way while also harnessing it for the race against Bush, he becomes a valued leader.

That will position Dennis as a natural candidate for president at whatever point in the future that Kerry loses his gorilla position. In the mean time, Dennis can do a LOT of good for the progressive cause and for the party as a whole. He becomes a hero, which increases popularity and name recognition and positions him well for the future.

The tricky part of this is striking a balance between Dennis seeming ONLY like a niche leader versus strong enough to lead the entire Democratic base. In his home district, for example, he wins with 75% of the vote, proving that he can appeal to a wide swath of Democrats and Republicans. He has crossed the chasm locally into the mainstream and is benefiting from the same mass psychology affects that Kerry is now enjoying. However, at this point, Dennis has lost the competition for the pragmatic vote on a national level, which means that he needs to focus on a niche to extend his constituency base for the next stage without undermining his capacity to be a candidate that appeals across the spectrum, as he does in his congressional district.

The race to rebuild the Democratic Party and take the White House from Bush is really just beginning. Dennis Kucinich will be a key leader in that process and the support of Kucinich supporters everywhere is vital. So let us continue to build, with a goal, of course, of one day seeing our man in the White House.

On Voting

Tomorrow, the sun rises on a day when you can help chart our destiny as a country. A vote is more than a popularity contest. It involves more than weighing positions. Each vote is an arrow pointed towards our future. It is how we set our compass as a nation. What is the future that we want to create? How boldly do we dream?

As you stand at the polling booth, I encourage you to imagine the many generations still to come. Imagine the billions of people in other countries that will be impacted but cannot vote in this election. Imagine the millions of species that are affected by how gracefully we walk on this earth. It is an awesome responsibility, this charting of America’s future. And perhaps no election in our lifetime has been as weighty.

I ask you to let the enormity of it affect you so that you do not choose from fear. Or media pronouncements. Or popularity. I ask you to choose from love: love for yourself, love for your family and community, love for your country, and love for future generations. Let your vote point us towards a future that you can be proud of having helped to create.

For me, the choice is crystalline clear. A vote for Dennis Kucinich is a statement of support for what we are becoming as a country and an act of compassion for the billions who will be affected by this election but who cannot vote in it. Kucinich’s stands on universal health care, world peace, education, sustainability, social justice, human rights, and protection from corporate corruption are the compass setting towards the America that I want to live in.

The new vision of America is one in which we blaze as a beacon of truth, justice, and freedom and take a strong leadership role in creating a new vision for the world, one that does not include war, poverty, exploitation, and environmental degradation.

Dennis Kucinich does more than dream of this new America. He advances practical policies that build the dream, brick by brick. He leads with truth, clarity, and tenacity. Join us by voting for him tomorrow and bringing this new vision of America to life.