Towards a Green Future

From my co-worker "Would you ever consider running as a Democrat?"

The answer: no.

I will support progressive democrats and greens, but I will not run as a democrat. Reasons are:

1. The party machinery (not necessarily candidates or the democratic grassroots) is addicted to special interest money and would not be warm to my idea of blocking out as much special interest money as possible from the electoral process.

2. I am in favor of instant runoff voting - which the democrats are not. It threatens their monopoly on power.

3. The US electorate needs more parties, more choices, and more accountability from their elected officials.

Class is starting.....adios!

Beyond ideology - green values drive green policies. Beyond green values are just plain human values of decency, respect, duty to ourselves, our families and our society as a whole. Scott McClarty,  GP media coordinator has written up an interesting piece below which speaks to this issue quite eloquently. The moral of the story is not be trapped by any ideology, for they are the LaBrea tar pits of politics, but to speak from and to your values, and work on goals to achieve a better outcome. How we get there is just as important as when or if we get there.

Read on!

----- Forwarded message from scottmclarty@yahoo.com -----
    Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 12:00:12 -0700 (PDT)

Some rambling observations on this question.....

We're a political party that wants to get
candidates elected instead of one that exists
just to pat ourselves on the back for having
correct opinions.  What we should keep in mind is
that most voters vote not out of ideology, but
(when they're not voting blindly down the line
for the party in which they're registered)
according to their own interests and ideals.
That's not a bad thing.

I suggest that, instead of ideology, Greens
emphasize basic humanistic & ecological values
and people's real needs.  While we should
acknowledge that most (not all) Green activists
come of a left background, we should note at
every step that the positions we take have little
to do with left & right, e.g.:

-- Green officeholders serve their constituents
by providing basic services -- fixing potholes,
ensuring trash pickup, getting rid of rats, etc.
aren't ideological exercises, they are examples
of basic responsibility to the people who elect
us (and reflect our ecological values, too).

-- Greens favor national health insurance not
because we're committed to socialism, but because
corporate coverage has failed miserably, and
people need health care.

-- Greens support rights & laws according to the
US Constitution, the UN Charter, the Geneva
articles, etc. -- not because such things are
'right' or 'left' but because we're committed to
democracy, human rights & freedoms, and the rule
of law (which are values, not ideologies).  The
Republicans & most Democrats, meanwhile, have
largely abandoned these principles, and have
dedicated themselves to things that have no
democratic legitimacy (corporate power,
international trade agreements, wars based on
preemption & desire for resources, etc.).

In other words, Bush & Co. (including mainstream
Dems) espouse radical doctrines that are contrary
to the interests of the American people and the
world.  The Green Party upholds all the best
traditional American values, as espoused
historically by people like Tom Paine, Henry
David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner
Truth, the signers of the Seneca Falls
declaration, the Populists, Emma Goldman, Martin
Luther King.  (The GP didn't emerge in a vacuum.)

In my opinion, ideology is a trap.  It's the
modern equivalent of orthodox religion from the
time of Constantine until the Renaissance, which
was used to justify all sorts of crusades,
jihads, and atrocities.  All the worst
catastrophes of the 20th century can be traced to
ideologies, by which I mean single-model theories
of human behavior: nationalism (translated into
imperialism), fascism, bureaucratic collectivism
(AKA communism), laissez-faire corporate
capitalism, religious fundamentalism.

In the late 20th century, the two dominant
conflicting ideologies were corporate capitalism
& communism.  After the fall of the Soviet bloc,
the dominant global conflict is between corporate
power buttressed by US military strength (not the
same as capitalism) and apocalyptic religious
fundamentalism.  Benjamin Barber calls it 'Jihad
vs. McWorld', Tariq Ali calls it 'The Clash of
Fundamentalisms.'  Greens are seeking to assert a
third force in the conflict, based on the
democratic alternative.

Instead of single-model absolutist ideologies,
the GP should instead recognize complex models of
human behavior, as complex as relations among
living things in the natural world.  I consider
Greens to be the heirs of Peter Kropotkin, with
some necessary ecological modifications to his
notion of biological mutual cooperation as a
model for human society.

Greens thus emphasize democratic & economic
structures to fit human & eco needs and local
preferences, rather a single solution, as
libertarian capitalists & socialists espouse.  I
think that that Greens, at our best,
simultaneously borrow critiques from different
theories: we take our condemnation of arbitrary
hierarchical power from anarchism; our analysis
of class conflict from Marxism; our criticism of
gender inequality from feminism; our support for
the freedom of individuals to live their lives
without coercion from the libertarians; our
opposition to corporate power from populism; our
support for local-level small business, family
farms, etc. and local economic self-sufficiency
from entrepreneurial capitalism.

Greens, ideally, recognize that humans are
complex creatures, constantly negotiating and
balancing their own self-interest with the needs
of other humans, other species, and the whole
planet.

On the other hand, our response to the major
crisis of the 21st century, global warming, is
uniquely Green and has little historical
precedent, except in isolated artifacts like
Henrik Ibsen's play 'An Enemy of the People.'  Is
self-preservation a left or right ideology?

Scott

Hello all - as one of Iowa's delegate's to the Green Party of the US, I was privileged to attend the Green Party annual meeting in beautiful Tucson, AZ! Below are some photo images of that trip, and the sights of the meeting.

Our luxurious accomodations at the University of AZ



The grounds of the Univ of AZ campus:



The meeting room at the Historic Y in Tucson:



The courtyard at the Y, used for meals and delegates informal conversations:



GPUS Secretary and IAGP Secretary Holly Hart giving a report (sorry for the bad lighting-my poor camera skills!):



Along with hybrid cars parked outside, alternative transportation abounded *inside* the convention hall:



A peace vigil of Greens, sponsored by local activist group Women In Black (100 or so were there - very positive reaction from passers by!):



Yours truly helping with a peace flag:



Tucson was actually cooler and rainier than Des Moines during the convention:



Entertainment was provided by George Shrub, the singing CIA agent:



Yours truly giving the Iowa GP update to the meeting:



Who does the majority of the hard work at the national Green Party office in Washington DC? Its Emily Citkowski and Brent McMillan!