Fri 17 Jul 2009
A new path for the Green Party
Posted by admin under 2009 Summer, 2009 Summer Op-Ed
[9] Comments
by Carl Archambeau, Sr., Michigan Green Party
I have a confession to make. I am guilty of financially supporting Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney in the recent presidential election. My redemption? I did, of course vote for the Green Party (GP) ticket. I supported Nader because everything he says needs saying and I wanted to encourage him. The same thing goes for McKinney, and I voted for her because she was the GP candidate.
In the process of doing the above, a couple of things occurred to me. The first was since GP financial resources are so limited it is important to promote grassroots organization through the use of state chapters. This would give the Party exposure and a voice in community affairs. In my home state of Michigan many, if not most, members are nonaffiliated and do not want to be in a chapter. Many of the things both candidates said made me think that more should be done to develop a constituency among small farmers and businesses, the self-employed, and other left-out groups, the candidates spoke for.
The second apparent observation is based on what I believe but can’t prove. If you add all those who voted for the Democrats because they didn’t wish to waste their vote, to those who voted for Nader and McKinney or any other progressive party, this would create a very large progressive constituency and a potential reservoir for members and campaign contributions. If all these voters could be brought under one progressive coalition party they would constitute a more formable political force. It would also make better use of scarce financial resources. Maybe they could even qualify for state and federal presidential campaign funding. There would not be anything against maintaining individual party identity so long as everyone could agree on a basic platform. The major parties are made up of several factions while a progressive party would be made up of several coalitions. Perhaps the GP could take the initiative in forming a working group among the various progressive parties and organizations and get this process moving ahead in the right direction.
I think it’s time to stop worrying about what the conservatives are doing and start worrying about what the progressives aren’t doing. As the old saying goes, “divided we fall united we stand.”
9 Responses to “ A new path for the Green Party ”
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@Steve: If you actually read Billy Talen’s platform, you would know that he is a serious and good candidate.
http://voterevbilly.org/platform
It’s funny folks think we’re so focused on the environment. I’ve talked to Greens from all over the world, and they tend to focus almost exclusively on the environment, making us look like we totally downplay it. Compared to them, we put a lot of emphasis on social justice and democracy issues.
Unfortunately, I believe the situation is even worse than portrayed in the article and comments above. I was at the City Council meeting in Santa Monica last Tuesday where I met an old progressive friend while telling the council that they’re not enforcing the 2006 anti-smoking laws. And there are not even any signs! My old friend told me that he believes the Green Party and Peace & Freedom are basically funded by the Republicans to undermine the Democrats. He’s a very progressive and honorable person. But most progressives feel that Nader cost Gore the election in 2000 and have no interest in joining with us. I told him that the Democrats, once in, don’t follow through on progressive agendas. Electing Democrats who are corporate conservatives parading as liberals isn’t helping. We agreed to disagree. But I believe this perception is widely held among progressive Democrats. That’s why they sheep along with the compromise candidates who do NOTHING.
In my opinion, the only way to change that perception and bring progressives together is to attract a galvanizing candidate to the Green Party. Nader showed that the candidate does increase the viability of the party. He was excluded from the debates in 2000 or that WOULD have been a 3 way race. And the two parties were absolutely right to fear him. The Green Party, in my opinion, should focus ALL it’s efforts on attracting a major candidate like a Kusinich to flagship their amada of smaller candidates.
Steve Greenfield from Oregon.
Michael Cavlan from Minnesota here. Please contact me at ollamhfaery@earthlink.net
As for this story and the comments. Well it is a frigging pity that the GP leadership decided to deliberately disenfranchise the Ralph Nader supporters in the GP. Then those folks who said nothing in support or spoke out in solidarity as the Nader supporters (and their allies like myself) left the GP in disgust at the direct violation of Grassroots Democracy and Social Justice.
Of course one would not know that the GP was in free fall, rapidly in decline from reading the happy talk of the National GP paper.
Have fun in North Carolina.
good grief.
“long-running emphasis by GPUS on nearly everything but the environment”
The danger of emphasising the environment is that it perpetuates the stereotype that we are a green party and not the Green Party. The environment is important and one of the defining characteristics of our party, but it is definitely not the only issue that Americans care about.
“The articles on the Rev. Billy in NYC also shows that the highest-visibility candidacies for the Green Party continue to be novelty candidates rather than people who can put forth and implement plans for governance.”
Amen.
“it is important to promote grassroots organization through the use of state chapters”
Yes! Subsidiarity is key.
In regards to your second observation about getting votes from Democrats, you would be fighting a losing battle. Until we can get PR, we operate within a “two-party” system. The beauty of our dysfunctional democracy is that many districts are gerrymandered so that only one of the two major parties can ever win. Democrat-leaning districts are places where the Green Party can be that second party. This is the strategy that Greens in other countries have used to get seats at the national and local levels.
*What* “various progressive parties”? Top-down, command-and-control Marxists? Pat Buchanan followers? Liberal Dems? It’s time to get over our inferiority complex. As broken as it may be, the GP is the only progressive political party with ballot lines in several US states.
It’s also well past time to get over the dirty mathematical lie we call “the spoiler effect” and never again accept the disgusting dirty lie that a vote for a GP candidate is ever “wasted.” @Carl, you’re way out of line with that.
@Dennis, there can be no “melding of the Independents and Greens” because there’s nothing there for the Greens to “meld” with. (The correct term for “Independents” is “decline to state” or “unaffiliated.” Capitalized, “Independents” is a propaganda term intended to marginalize new political parties by conflating them with no party at all.) Try to undestand the concept of a political party. It’s not a protest group. It’s an organized, legal effort to contend for power, by people who are unsatisfied with jeering from the sidelines.
@Steve, right-on about the novelty candidates. We should never waste a minute or a nickel supporting a candidate who makes her or himself ridiculous.
This is not a new idea. It’s one of the oldest ideas, and one that does not work.
It’s not possible to stitch together a tapestry of “outsider” and single-issue groups. There has to be more in common for people to agree on a single candidate or to pool their financial resources. As far as independents go, most of them have reasons for not belonging to a major party that have nothing to do with whether or not their ideology leans towards one or the other. Most independents calmly vote for Democrats or Republicans and are not looking for unification around some new banner.
The only thing that ties together people from different ideologies is a clear focus on the environment. Sadly, this issue of Green Pages extends the long-running emphasis by GPUS on nearly everything but the environment. The articles on the Rev. Billy in NYC also shows that the highest-visibility candidacies for the Green Party continue to be novelty candidates rather than people who can put forth and implement plans for governance.
Hi again….
When I saw the title of this “New Path” op. ed., I thought that finally someone would be working towards a melding of the Independents and Greens.
Could someone tell me if this is a viable option?
Thanks
Dennis