June 13, 2003
How to proceed?
There is no question that the activities of the Green Party had a real effect on the 2000 political campaigns. No, the Green Party is not to blame for the placement of George W. Bush in the White House. The Green Party did, however, show people that it is possible for strong and energetic third parties to get coverage, to win local and state offices, to bring important issues into the mainstream media. It should be the goal of the Green Party, and all third parties, to continue to press on issues that are ignored by the Democrats and Republicans and frequently the corporate media.
A two party system is not, by any stretch of the imagination, representative democracy. The idea that the right and the center right represent the full spectrum of acceptable political thought is absurd. Listen to talk radio, and suddenly the spectrum ranges from hard right to extreme right. Read the paper, and it expands to include center, center right, right, and hard right. Television news is the same. The corporate media doesn't represent the people, it represents the corporations. The Democrats and the Republicans also represent the corporations.
The only way for the people to have any say is to support parties other than the Democrats and Republicans. Fielding intelligent, passionate, dedicated candidates on a local and state level gets the party attention, begrudging media coverage, and an opportunity to present their platform. As people begin to see more and more parties and realize that some of these parties are more closely aligned with their own personal views than either of the majors they will begin to register with those alternate parties, support those parties, vote those parties.
I support the Green party, but I encourage all Americans to educate themselves about third parties and find a party that truly represents them. There should be at least a half dozen major parties, perhaps made up of coalitions of dozens of smaller parties, in order to truly represent all, or even a majority, of American.
The values of the Green Party are
- Grassroots Democracy
- Social Justice
- Ecological Wisdom
- Non-violence
- Decentralization
- Community-Based Economics
- Feminism
- Diversity
- Responsibility
- Future Focus
It would be admirable to also make well-known where we agree, where we aren’t radical: everyone agrees that schools are broken these days, in Oregon, all parties. Something went wrong! That’s a common cheering point for everyone to rally around, and maybe a good way to develop publicity, to get something done in a relationship with the two parties. Time to polish off the adversary communication skills, because I don’t think the schools are going to hold together much longer. :)
I really enjoyed your essay; I’ll keep on reading. Thanks.
Posted by: Richard Soderberg at June 14, 2003 06:07 AMI was a “Nader Trader” voter in the past election. Gore had no chance in Alabama so I traded my vote with an American Indian in Minnesota (a Nader Trader I was). Gore had a chance there, but my trader counterpart (and I agreed) wanted Nader to become a voice on the political front and get some federal matching funds so he voted for Gore and I voted for Nader. Unfortunately the net effect of all of this on the national election seemed to be nil, especially considering the hijacking of the presidential election in Florida.
Posted by: fred at June 14, 2003 07:28 AMActually, I think the Green Party really did siphon off enough votes from Gore resulting in Bush’s selection. They’re trying to rationalize it by taking a long view.
Who knows? Their strategy might turn out to be a good one for them and their candidates. But for now, we’ll just have to make lemonade.
Posted by: rcnotes at June 15, 2003 10:09 PM
