Wasting my time arguing with Democrats over Green Party activism… it’s THEIR problem. :)
I just posted the comments below to MyDD.com
Arguing over this is just about the most pointless waste of time I can imagine, but…
0. We’re all on the same side of the issues, progressive Democrats and Greens alike. We work together every day, trying to move an agenda that is fundamentally different from that proposed by DLC style Democrats and Republicans of nearly every stripe. Letting argument over the questionable results of one election divert our energies is pointless and just plays into the hands of the right-wingers. Nevertheless…
1. As I pointed out, your job is not to convince me to return to the Democratic fold (where I’ve never been - my Dad voted for John B. Anderson in 1980, and I’ve been a Green since I was eligible to vote)… it is to convince the 10% (wait, that was 2000… now it is 12-13%) or so of the voters (at least in the progressive areas of California) who’ve decided that, purely on ideology alone, that the Greens beat the Democrats - these are not “activist” Greens, they aren’t even party members, in most cases - they are just fed up.
As an example, I offer Laura Wells, our statewide candidate for Treasurer in California - she won nearly 6% of the vote. Hundreds of thousands of voters, who likely had no information (very little at most) about her positions, chose to vote for her, for NO OTHER REASON THAN SHE WAS A GREEN. This is the DEMOCRATS problem - they’ve lost the confidence of their own voters.
Especially the women - female Green candidates run 20-30% ahead of male candidates. What does it say about the Democratic Party that in a year where the Republicans didn’t manage to nominate one single woman for statewide office (and just one Latino male) in California, the Democrats managed to do… no better. In fact, theoretically worse, as the female candidate for the non-partisan office of State Supt. of Education was Republican identified, running against a Democrat identified male.
I had more female candidates for statewide office in my backyard this year at a single fundraiser (two), than either “major party” could find to nominate.
2. Bluntly, I wouldn’t change my vote - even knowing what I do today. Even if I were in Florida. I’m PROUD to have voted for Ralph Nader, and I’ll be happy and proud to tell my grandchildren that I was on the right side of history. In all likelihood, I’ll happily vote for a bunch of Green candidates (and a few Democrats) in 2004. If the Democrats are insane enough to nominate someone like Gen. Wesley Clarke, well, they deserve whatever they get. If Paul Wellstone rose from the grave to become the Democratic nominee in 2004, well, I think I’d be open to the idea of not running a presidential candidate… short of that, I don’t think so.
I think that what we’re seeing with Bush is truly a difference of degree, not kind. Would Gore have bombed the fuck out of Afghanistan? Probably. Would he be preparing to invade Iraq… probably not; but he’d be doing something almost as stupid (perhaps launching more cruise missles into the Sudan to blow up asprin factories?). Would Gore have signed the USA Patriot Act? Probably, at least a “kinder, gentler” version of it (similar to the kind of amendments proposed by the Labor Party in Australia… only, probably not as good).
Can any of you say you’re proud of the Democrats record on the war(s), on civil liberties, on Columbia? Have they (as a party) been able to articulate any coherent alternative to the Republican agenda? … if so, I sure haven’t heard it.
But, as I said, what I think is irrelevant - the Democrat’s real problem is with their own base, which is beginning to defect en-mass… they’ve got to convince the students, the activists, the people at the grass roots that they’re worth voting for. And they’ve done a miserable job to date.
3. Most of the Green party activists I know are disgusted and disillusioned Democratic Party activists… they’re irretrievable, they’ve already put up with a decade or more of lies. One local activist I know used to be the President of the local progressive Democratic Party club.
Most of Green activists I know who *aren’t* party activists, are pragmatists… they’ll work for Democrats and vote for Democrats, but still identify as Green, because the Democratic Party as an institution, has simply drifted too far to the right for them to be comfortable within it. They might be salvagable… but I don’t see the Democrats doing anything to make that happen.
4. I ask the progressive Democrats - if the Democrats nominate Joe Lieberman, are you going to hold your nose and campaign for him against G.W. Bush - even if the Greens nominate, say, Jim Hightower? What are your limits? What if, say, Arlen Specter decided to switch parties and run for President as a Democrat - would you find him acceptable as a nominee?
5. I’m no fucking ivory tower Green - and none of the Greens I know are, either. The Greens I know, are *LEADING* the charge for: Single Payer Healthcare, opposition to the war, the Living Wage, civil liberties and the rights of the homeless, etc. Quite literally, the vanguard of the progressive movement (at least in my town) is Green. I’m involved in:
a) GLBT civil rights and political organizing
b) Living Wage organizing (chair local City Committee)
c) anti-war protest
d) homeless civil rights (served on local city committee for a year)
e) affordable housing advocacy and organizing
f) non-partisan progressive organizing
I spend twenty hours a week, at least, in the trenches, if not more. On top of wasting my time ranting against pissy Democrats who bitch and whine about Gore’s defeat and just can’t accept the fact that their party no longer has a lock on the progressive vote, and has lost all intellectual credibility. What have you done, lately?
I’m a Green - my party has the right positions on the issues, the right values, and the right process (at least relative to the Democrats and Republicans)… I am part of an international movement. The triumphs of Bob Brown and the Greens in Australia are mine - as they are in Sweden, and Germany, and elsewhere.
I’m not looking at the next election, the next four years, I’m looking at the next decade, the next century - what are we fighting for, if not the future?
I’m willing to bet, long-term, that the Green Party’s policy of integrity and adherence to authentic progressive values will pay off…
