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Green
Party Taking the Plunge for 2004
by
Norman Solomon
July
24, 2003
For
the 2004 presidential race, the Green dye is cast.
“The Green Party emerged from a national
meeting ... increasingly certain that it will run a presidential candidate in
next year’s election, all but settling a debate within the group over how it
should approach the 2004 contest,” the Washington Post reported on July 21. The
Green Party promptly put out a news release declaring that Greens “affirmed the
party’s intention to run candidates for president and vice president of the
United States in 2004.”
That
release quoted a national party co-chair. “This meeting produced a clear
mandate for a strong Green Party presidential ticket in 2004,” he said, adding
that “we chose the path of growth and establishing ourselves as the true opposition
party.” But other voices, less public, are more equivocal.
Days
later, national party co-chair Anita Rios told me that she’s “ambivalent” about
the prospect of a Green presidential race next year. Another co-chair, Jo
Chamberlain, mentioned “mixed feelings about it.” Theoretically, delegates to
the national convention next June could pull the party out of the ’04 presidential
race. But the chances of that happening are very slim. The momentum is clear.
Few
present-day Green Party leaders seem willing to urge that Greens forego the
blandishments of a presidential campaign. The increased attention -- including
media coverage -- for the party is too compelling to pass up.
In
recent years, the Greens have overcome one of the first big hurdles of a
fledgling political party: News outlets no longer ignore them. In 2000, the
Green presidential ticket, headed by Ralph Nader, had a significant impact on
the campaign. Although excluded from the debates and many news forums,
candidate Nader did gain some appreciable media exposure nationwide.
Green
leaders are apt to offer rationales along the lines that “political parties run
candidates” and Greens must continue to gain momentum at the ballot box. But by
failing to make strategic decisions about which electoral battles to fight --
and which not to – the Greens are set to damage the party’s long-term
prospects.
The
Green Party is now hampered by rigidity that prevents it from acknowledging a
grim reality: The presidency of George W. Bush has turned out to be so terrible
in so many ways that even a typically craven corporate Democrat would be a
significant improvement in some important respects.
Fueled
by idealistic fervor for its social-change program (which I basically share),
the Green Party has become an odd sort of counterpoint to the liberals who have
allowed pro-corporate centrists to dominate the Democratic Party for a dozen
years now. Those liberal Democrats routinely sacrifice principles and idealism
in the name of electoral strategy. The Greens are now largely doing the reverse
-- proceeding toward the 2004 presidential race without any semblance of a viable
electoral strategy, all in the name of principled idealism.
Local
Green Party activism has bettered many communities. While able to win some
municipal or county races in enclaves around the country -- and sometimes
implementing valuable reforms -- the Greens stumble when they field candidates
for statewide offices or Congress.
When
putting up candidates in those higher-level campaigns, the Greens usually
accomplish little other than on occasion making it easier for the Republican
candidate to win. That’s because the U.S. electoral system, unfortunately,
unlike in Europe, is a non-parliamentary winner-take-all setup. To their
credit, Green activists are working for reforms like “instant runoff voting”
that would make the system more democratic and representative.
In
discussions about races for the highest offices, sobering reality checks can be
distasteful to many Greens, who correctly point out that a democratic process
requires a wide range of voices and choices during election campaigns. But that
truth does not change another one: A smart movement selects its battles and cares
about its impacts.
A
small party that is unwilling to pick and choose its battles -- and unable to
consider the effects of its campaigns on the country as a whole -- will find
itself glued to the periphery of American politics.
In
contrast, more effective progressives seeking fundamental change are inclined
to keep exploring -- and learning from – the differences between principle and
self-marginalization. They bypass insular rhetoric and tactics that drive
gratuitous wedges between potential allies -- especially when a united front is
needed to topple an extreme far-right regime in Washington.
Norman Solomon is Executive
Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy (www.accuracy.org) and a syndicated
columnist. His latest book is Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell
You (Context Books, 2003) with Reese Erlich. For an excerpt and other
information, go to: www.contextbooks.com/new.html#target. Email: mediabeat@igc.org
*
The 45-minute video of Norman’s appearance on C-SPAN “Washington Journal” a few
days ago can be seen at: http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/gdrive/iraq_wj070603_solomon.rm
(or via direct link at the top of www.accuracy.org)