{"id":247,"date":"2003-07-03T02:32:32","date_gmt":"2003-07-03T10:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/07\/03\/green-party-strategy-in-2004\/"},"modified":"2003-07-03T02:32:32","modified_gmt":"2003-07-03T10:32:32","slug":"green-party-strategy-in-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Green Party strategy in 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m still way too busy with real-life stuff to pay proper attention to this blog… sorry, folks. Meanwhile, here’s an interesting email that’s been making the Green Party rounds (thanks to Jake Squid <\/a>for the tip).<\/p>\n

Subject: Coalition Proposal by Abe Gutmann – former NM Chair and US Senate candidate
\nDate: 6\/27\/2003 9<\/p>\n

Dear Friends, I would like to propose a strategy of seeking a coalition agreement with the Democrats along the model of Germany, where Greens are able to promote their policies beyond the weight of their numbers through their holding the margin of victory fro the Social Democrats, as we do here for the Dems. Some will immediately object that we do not have a parliamentary system, and therefore, could not hold the Dems accountable: please read on as I shall address that issue and drawing a way forward that would entail neither capitulating nor getting Bush elected (we should never say re-elected).<\/p>\n

First, we might be able to leverage the democratic primary NOT by re-registering as Dems, but by a Party statement of the possibility of a coalition government along with the names of the three or four Democratic candidates we are LEAST likely to negotiate with for a withdrawal. This sends the message that we are open to talking to candidates other than the Joe Liebermans w\/o our having to wrangle with an endorsement controversy, or burning bridges to candidates more likely than Kucinich to win, and we are still in a position to run our own candidate in the end, because we should proceed apace and definitely nominate the best candidate we can find – only with one hell of a candidate in place will we be able to pull off the coup I am proposing.<\/p>\n

Second, asking for and receiving policy concessions may be easy – too easy. We should not even consider any offer that does not make Ralph a Cabinet Secretary (Labor?) or as head of the EPA etc. AND one other highly qualified Green (Linda Martin, Carol Miller, Winona LaDuke, Jonathan Carter, Steve Schmidt all jump to mind) in a second Green Cabinet position, in order to establish firmly that this was not the “co-optation of Ralph”, “personal deal of Ralph” and all other such inevitable attempts to negatively spin a Green-Dem coalition.<\/p>\n

Beyond this, there should be Greens appointed to all executive political positions from undersecretary down commensurate with our negotiated share in the coalition, which should be based not on our membership but on the Nader 2000 vote, so that we could expect that our 3+ % would be translated into about 7% of the 50% it takes to win a head-to-head election (barring further Electoral College madness).<\/p>\n

In 1994, when I was State Chairman in NM and managed the Statewide campaigns, Kent Smith, the CA GP’s Galactic Ambassador, said to me what I was not yet ready to hear: “Ultimately we can only play a positive role in coalition with the Dems. Nowhere in the world does a Green Party command a majority mandate or even become among the top two parties in a multi-party system. But we do hold the margin of their victory, and therefore we, as the most enlightened Party can command influence far in excess of our numbers and thus prod along the rest of society to our way of thinking”.<\/p>\n

Now that we have shown that we are very well capable of getting Republicans elected, especially as they have done here in NM several times at the Congressional and Gubernatorial level, put up rogues or dufuses, relics or right-wingers. Here in NM the Dems have known for years that the voters can and will punish them for their insulting them. However, it has also been shown that our support drops way off when we run against people who we should either be supporting, (or indeed suing to get on our ballot line in a Fusion candidacy), or at least staying out of the way of, as we have done here in the Albuquerque Congressional race, and some US Senate races.<\/p>\n

Let’s make a difference by being smart, which leads me to my penultimate point: Nominating an unknown “homegrown candidate”, except possibly for VP would be a huge mistake on our part and relegate us beyond the margins of politics to the netherworld inhabited by the Libertarians ( with whom we could get high) and the Natural Law Party ( with whom we could meditate). The only candidates who could pull off the “German strategy” I propose would be people like Ralph Nader, Jim Hightower, Cynthia McKinney, Cornell West, Amy Goodman or Michael Moore.<\/p>\n

Finally, be willing to walk out on the Dems both during the campaign or subsequently, if they renege on policy or appointment commitments. Some will object that unlike a parliamentary system we cannot bring the government down, true, but we can spoil key Congressional races in the mid-term election if they ignore us. On the other hand, we cannot expect them to become Greens. Even Green candidates can barely meet all of the array of litmus tests that must reveal very dark hues of Green (and Red). And we may make such demands of our own candidates or people in appointed offices, but the beauty of multi-party democracy and its coalitions is in that it is a way to work productively with people not as close to one’s own views but yet close enough to keep the other really, really BAD GUYS out.<\/p>\n

And I do not need to expound upon just how scary – and dare I say it – EVIL such characters as Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Ashcroft are lead by their pin-head “president” who worships two gods: 1) The free-market and its wonderful invisible hand that likes to snuff out the weak and 2) The God who wreaks vengeance on the unbelievers and will return only when the Temple of Solomon is re-built (requiring the destruction of the Dome of the Rock). All you need to do is surf the UHF band of your TV to understand just how scary these lunatics are: while Arabs are made scapegoats for Islamic fundamentalism, the Christian Right is building its City on a Hill right around us. My point here is: Please don’t go around saying that Dems and Reps are all the same. It makes us look stupid and undiscriminating.<\/p>\n

Abraham Gutmann<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m still way too busy with real-life stuff to pay proper attention to this blog… sorry, folks. Meanwhile, here’s an interesting email that’s been making the Green Party rounds (thanks to Jake Squid for the tip). Subject: Coalition Proposal by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}