Cynthia McKinney on Civil Liberties

Cynthia McKinney holds an astonishing 97% lifetime ACLU rating based on her performance in Congress between 1993 and 2007. This is by far the highest ACLU rating of any 2008 presidential candidate, regardless of party, and is among the highest lifetime ACLU ratings ever recorded for any member of Congress.

McKinney has a perfect pro-choice voting record, as indicated by her 0% lifetime rating from the National Right to Life Committee.

McKinney has consistently called for the abolition of the death penalty since 1993, arguing that all capital sentences should be commuted to life without parole. She has also consistently supported legislation protecting the rights of capital defendants, and consistently opposed legislation that would expand the death penalty or limit appeals.

It is very likely that the reason McKinney's lifetime ACLU rating is 97% instead of 100% is because of her support for campaign finance reform legislation, which can occasionally conflict with the First Amendment right to political speech. Otherwise, her record on First Amendment is flawless. She joined with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to oppose the Communications Decency Act, consistently opposed federal flag desecration laws, and has been a strong advocate for separation of church and state.

McKinney has voted against expansion of skilled worker immigration and in favor of mandatory employer verification systems, but she has also favored a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants resident in the United States, as well as voting against border fence proposals. She has repeatedly expressed displeasure at the current labor-based approach to undocumented immigration, arguing that "immigration shouldn't be a labor policy, just as war shouldn't be an energy policy."

McKinney supports same-sex marriage, a transgender-inclusive Employment Nondiscrimination Act, the right of lesbian and gay persons to serve in the military, and laws allowing federal investigation of local bias-motivated crimes, including crimes against LGBT persons. Her support of LGBT rights has been longstanding, and includes her opposition to (and her vote against) the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.

McKinney supports the creation of a program to examine possible ways to compensate for the effects of slavery (which would include a study of possible reparations), expansion of affirmative action programs, and a renewed commitment by the U.S. government to dismantle remaining vestiges of the racial caste system.

While I have not yet been able to document McKinney's NRA rating during her time in Congress, I'm reasonably confident that it was not a high rating, as she consistently supported gun control legislation.

McKinney voted against the PATRIOT Act, and has consistently opposed the Bush administration's post-9/11 expansion of executive power. On the other hand, some of her post-9/11 rhetoric has been described as paranoid--one remark she made accusing the Bush administration of having advance knowledge of the attacks was very likely responsible for her defeat and subsequent departure from Congress, though subsequent evidence has indicated that the Bush administration was aware that an attack of some kind by al-Qaeda was imminent.

Cynthia McKinney has always represented the radical wing of the Democratic Party, making other Democrats squirm as she consistently supports an ambitious platform of equality and human rights.

McKinney is realistic about her prospects as a candidate, stating that her practical objective is to get 5 percent of the vote and qualify the Green Party for federal funding. My feelings about Green Party presidential candidates have changed over time. While the argument can certainly be made that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election, for example, the argument could also be made that Al Gore alienated a large segment of his base with his concessions to the center-right and that they had nowhere to turn but Nader. And that's what Gore did with Nader in the race; if he and Bush were the only two candidates, what would have prevented Al Gore from completely selling out on his entire civil liberties policy agenda?

So McKinney is an issues candidate, true, but she isn't a vanity candidate. As an unapologetically radical third-party candidate, she ensures that Obama will either hold on to an agenda of change and preserve his base of support, or lose an unacceptable number of voters to McKinney and the election to McCain. While I like Obama and have endorsed him as a candidate, I don't really mind seeing him--or any other Democratic nominee--put in that position.