Green Party Platform

[wlotus]

In light of the presidential candidates the two-party system has given us, many people are looking for better options. One such option is the Green Party, whose candidates are former Democratic congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for President, and activist Rosa Clemente for Vice President. Here are the 10 Key Values of the Green Party:

1. Grassroots Democracy
2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
3. Ecological Wisdom
4. Nonviolence
5. Decentralization
6. Community-based Economics and Economic Justice
7. Feminism and Gender Equity
8. Respect for Diversity
9. Personal and Global Responsibility
10. Future Focus / Sustainability

Please take the time to learn more about McKinney and Clemente, and consider voting for them in November, for the good of our nation. Contrary to what the media is telling us, we have viable choices other than the Democratic and Republican parties.

ETA: I am going to tentatively open comments on this post. I have closed comments on political posts in the recent past, because I am not interested in being regaled ad nauseam with the commentary of people who disagree; as stated before, they have their own blogs where they may do so. This is not the place to assert a vote for other than the Democratic or Republican parties is a vote for the destruction of our country. (That idea is why the two-party system has survived for as long as it has, rather than opening up the political landscape to new ideas.) This is not the place to tell me not to vote Green and to vote for your candidate of choice, instead. Nor is this the place to vent about and disagree with past posts here where comments were disabled. I reserve the right to delete such comments without unscreening them. Commenting here is a privilege, not a right.

Comments

[faerie-spark.livejournal.com]

I willl be interested to read more information on these folks. I'm particularly interested in how they would answer the question of how to withdraw safely from Iraq, in light of their tenet on nonviolence.

Thank you for sharing this information with us.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I am interested in how they would answer that question, as well.

[spritely-ariel.livejournal.com]

Wow, they actually use the word 'feminism' in one of their key values! I am impressed.

[ciardhapagan.livejournal.com]

I know I'm voting Green. They endorse my values and don't treat women like second class citizens- something this primary showed both major parties do.

[verucas-chaos.livejournal.com]

I'll be taking a look. Thanks for keeping the information up.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I'm very tempted. Especially since my state is not a swing state.

*wishes this was a proportionally represented system*

[heronblue.livejournal.com]

I like the Green Party platform a lot. Which makes me somewhat sad, because most of the experiences I've had with Green Party members have been fairly horrible.

Maybe I'm a hypocrite, but I hold people who more or less agree with me on issues to a higher standard than those who fundamentally disagree. So when some ultra-conservative jerk tells me off, I barely blink an eye. However, when someone I agree with 95% hurls invective in my face because I don't agree with them 100%, I get really frustrated, and that's been my experience with Greens.

A little context, here: I worked for the Gore campaign in and around a college campus in 2000. Almost without exception, I found the Nader people to be rude, intolerant of dissenting views, and incredibly disrespectful. I saw them accost our (very liberal) congressional representative in a hallway, shout ugly questions at him, and then shout him down when he tried to rationally explain his positions (which almost totally agreed with theirs). Granted, these were college students, not the most respectful and rational population out there, but it still struck me as incredibly rude. These same pro-environment students littered the campus and town-- buildings, walls, post-office boxes-- with Nader stickers that cost the school thousands of dollars to remove after the election.

In Vermont, years later, a neocon came to my school to advocate for invading Iraq. The campus socialists/Greens (there seemed to be no substantive difference in this population) protested his speaking with signs, one of which accused the (Jewish) neocon of being a Nazi. Now, I disagreed with the neocon completely, but it struck me that that level of insult should have no place in political discourse (as an aside, that neocon completely recanted his positions years later and has become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration). I found out later that the person leading that protest (who wrote the offending sign) is a pretty strange guy... I've seen him more recently wearing a clown suit and riding a brightly-colored bicycle with a poster that proclaims "NADER LIVES".

One thing I will admit is possibly undeserved bias on my part: I still have not forgiven the Nader supporters of 2000 for insisting that there was no difference between Bush and Gore and contributing significantly to elevating to power the worst president in American history.

Despite my poor opinion of many of the Green Party people I have met, I think that if the party became more mainstream (in the sense of being accepted, not by changing its platform), the extremists I've encountered would begin to be drowned out by more moderate and rational voices. There's a lot to like in the platform itself.

I happen to live in one of the few places in the country that has a functioning 3-party system. In Vermont, the dominant political forces are the Republicans, Democrats, and Progressives. Progressives currently run Burlington (mayor and majority of the city council), and are running a very competitive candidate for governor (though I think he switched party affiliation to "Independent", for some reason... he started as the Progressive candidate). There are some instances when the Progressives and Democrats work together in elections... last election cycle, the Progressives endorsed the Democrat candidate for governor, so they'd collectively have a better chance of beating the Republican (which of course didn't happen). I think the 3-party system has forced the Republican administration to govern more toward the center, and is probably one of the reasons Vermont has socialized health care, among other things. It's not a perfect system, of course, but it's proof that there are viable options beyond a 2-party system.

In summary: I'd like to like the Greens more than I do, and maybe someday I'll get over my personal bitterness enough to vote for them. In the meantime, I'll keep splitting my votes between Democrats and Progressives here in Vermont.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

However, when someone I agree with 95% hurls invective in my face because I don't agree with them 100%, I get really frustrated, and that's been my experience with Greens.

Ugh...that would turn me off, too. In fact, that is a large part of what turned me off to the Obama campaign early on: the intense rudeness of his supporters. I've noticed, like you, that a lot of the mockery and disrespect came from college-aged supporters, but it still burned and turned me off, especially since in general, we see eye to eye on the issues. Attacking me for not believing in the candidate, even if I believe(d) in the party, is inexcusable. You win more supporters with honey than with vinegar.

I'm glad Vermont has a 3-party system that works. I hope to see more of that elsewhere.

[heronblue.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense. One thing that Obama has undeniably done is catch the attention of younger voters. I can absolutely see how overly passionate Obama supporters could be as rude and intolerant as the Nader fanatics I had so much trouble with in 2000. I'm sorry you were subject to that kind of ugliness, and it goes a long way toward explaining why you became disillusioned with the entire party.