Article: Why I Changed My Voter Registration Today (to Green)

[GreenPartyVoter]

by Norman Solomon

This morning I mailed a form changing my party registration from "decline to state" to the Green Party. It's a tiny individual step in response to a hugely important collective action -- the party's decision at its national convention to nominate David Cobb for president.

A majority of the delegates went for a candidate who relied on grassroots organizing and respectful debate. Cobb won the nomination after proving his capacity to engage in substantive dialogue with Green Party activists and other progressives. Without that capacity, he probably wouldn't have ended up taking his position in favor of a "safe states" approach to this year's presidential race.

How thoroughly Cobb and his running mate Pat LaMarche will implement such a strategy remains to be seen. Hopefully, history will record that in 2004 the Green ticket boosted the party's strength among progressives nationwide while making common cause with the wide array of movements determined to prevent a victory for the Bush-Cheney gang on Election Day.

As a practical matter, ending the George W. Bush presidency on November 2 will require sufficient votes for John Kerry in most of the 20 or so swing states: Oregon and Washington; Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado; Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Delaware; New Hampshire and Maine; West Virginia, Arkansas and Louisiana; and, of course, Florida.

Full article here: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0628-01.htm

-------------------------------------------------------
An open letter to John Kerry and the DNC.
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/OpenLetter.htm

[Political_Junkie]

1. Good article,

and I love your open letter to Kerry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Thanks. :^) I'll have to amend it once he gets into office. And I think

I will set it up so that others can sign it and send it to President Kerry.

-------------------------------------------------------
An open letter to John Kerry and the DNC.
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/OpenLetter.htm

[Political_Junkie]

3. Great idea.

I'd sign it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Thanks. :^)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. The Greens find themselves at a very important inflection point...

In their nascent history: Will they, once again, at least give the appearance of aiding and abetting the election of the single worst administration in the history of the nation, or not?

They squandered a lot of good will, last time around, and yes, a lot of that squandering can be put at the feet of Nader. But they were involved and bear some mention in dispatches.

I would suggest that their interests would be better addressed by building their party in a bottom-up manner. Get your local, county and state organizations in order. Then, start thinking about running in the Nats.

This country may well not survive four more years of this clusterfuck. The Greens, if they even create the appearance of being somehow involved in the re-election of the maladministration, will reap a whirlwind on the left that they may never recover from.

That is a choice that they will have to make and live with.

[Nlighten1]

5. I disagree.

Another 4 years of Bush AND the Democrats supporting Bush will drive the people to the Greens or any other party that wants to be a REAL opposition party.

[jpgray]

9. You're making the Thalmann argument

He thought the Nazi victory in the Reichstag would be Hitler's 'best day', because it would galvanize the left under the Communist banner. Guess what happened? He died in Buchenwald, and you can bet that if Bush is already detaining Green leaders with the Secret Service, he won't have much problem controlling and suppressing them in his second term, with an undeniable mandate for his future policies. As for the public, they don't give a shit.

[Nlighten1]

11. The same may happen here.

You are correct in your points and if Bush steals another term in office we will be screwed.

[jpgray]

12. You might be right though--historical analogies are pretty dodgy

I have no idea if I'm right that electing Kerry will do more for progressives than a reselected Bush. That's my guess, though. :shrug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Unfortunately, to maintain our ballot status we have to run

candidates at higher levels.

But we certainly do also run for the most very basic of offices, as you can see here: http://greens.org/elections :)

-------------------------------------------------------
An open letter to John Kerry and the DNC.
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/OpenLetter.htm

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. Good.

Because much of what The Greens advocate, I do agree with. However, 'round these parts, I don't see any Green candidates at any level. Hence, I am a Democrat, working hard to kick repukes to any curb I can find. I am comfortable with this situation.

And no, I do not expect every candidate to agree with my every position. But then, I now have a campaign under my belt, as a worker, and that taught me that truly, politics are about the art of the compromise. At least effective and healthy politics.

Cramming things down the throats of people, ala' the repukes, is just childish, petulant and abundantly wrong, not to mention wholly ineffective governance, as we have seen.

[jpgray]

8. We need the Greens

Once we have a few Greens or other progressive third parties in Congress, Democrats will start paying attention to the left that routinely wins elections for them. If not, the left will know where to go in the future.