Views > July 16, 2004

Growing the Green Party

By David Cobb

Here’s a story that you won’t see in the corporate media: The Green Party is growing—getting bigger, stronger and better-organized in every election cycle. Even after the infamous 2000 presidential election, when the media and Democrats blamed us for Bush’s selection and ignored the blatantly illegal and biased behavior of Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and a Republican Supreme Court majority, our numbers have grown.

In 1996, the Green Party was organized in 10 states, guaranteed a ballot line in just five and had elected 40 officeholders. Today, we have parties organized in 44 states, 23 with guaranteed ballot access, and hundreds of Greens elected to public office, including the mayors of Santa Monica, California, and New Paltz, New York, and the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. And, for the first time in our party’s history, we have two registered Greens as our presidential and vice presidential candidates, myself and Patricia LaMarche, respectively.

The goals of the Cobb-LaMarche campaign are to present a genuine, progressive alternative, grow the Green Party and have this year’s election culminate with the removal of the White House’s illegitimate occupant.

We are speaking truth to power in this campaign. We are the only party calling for decisive action on catastrophic global climate change and our addiction to fossil fuels, a living wage, universal healthcare under a national insurance plan, real steps toward racial equality, an end to the so-called USA Patriot Act, and the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

We are also confronting the “spoiler” issue head on. When this question is raised, it provides us with an opportunity to talk about reforming a flawed electoral system. There isn’t a spoiler problem. The problem is an antiquated, anti-democratic electoral system that forces people to vote for a candidate they really don’t support in order to keep an even worse candidate out of office. We deserve a more democratic and more efficient electoral system, representing the diversity of people and opinions in our country.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is one solution. IRV allows people to rank candidates in order of preference so that if your first-choice candidate doesn’t win enough votes to make it into a runoff, your second choice vote is automatically considered. IRV is used to elect officeholders in Australia, Ireland and London and is soon to be implemented in San Francisco. (Learn more about IRV, proportional representation and other reforms to ensure fair elections on the Web site for the Center for Voting & Democracy at http://www.fairvote.org.)

Third parties have played a critical role throughout American history. In their heyday, third parties elected mayors, governors and members of Congress. In fact, the entire social fabric of our society was woven from ideas that originated within third parties: the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote, Social Security, the 40-hour work week and the direct election of U.S. senators, to name just a few.

What we are trying to accomplish through our work with the Green Party is greater than any one campaign or any one election. We are in this for the long haul. One of the key steps to growing our party and eliminating a dangerous global threat is ensuring the removal of George W. Bush from office. Bush is a huge problem. But he is not the problem. The problem is a corporate-military-industrial-prison-judicial system that is destroying the planet. We need to address the larger problem, but we also need to remove the most immediate threat to global peace—and that means getting Bush out of office.

I am in no way suggesting that anyone vote for John Kerry. Kerry is a corporatist and a militarist who supported the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the passage of the Patriot Act. He also opposes real universal health care and a living wage. However, although the differences between Bush and Kerry may be incremental, they are not inconsequential.

In 40 or so states the Electoral College votes have, for all intents and purposes, already been cast. For example, Massachusetts, California and New York will go to the Democrats; Utah, Wyoming and Texas to the Republicans. In these states, where our message is “Don’t waste your vote,” a vote for the Green Party is a powerful tool. In the battleground states that will decide the election, we understand if you won’t vote for our ticket this time. That’s OK. A vote is a powerful and personal decision. You can register Green and support us in every other way possible, especially with votes for state and local Green candidates and contributions of your time and money.

With the strategy we have articulated, we will grow the Green Party, provide voters with a genuine alternative and make the world a safer and saner place to live.

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• Reader Comments

  Here is the major problem: “In the battleground states that will decide the election, we understand if you won’t vote for our ticket this time.” This completely contradicts: “I am in no way suggesting that any one vote for John Kerry.” You are candidate for President who is endorsing another candidate?  This is a lean to the right along with Kerry and Bush. The goal of the Green Party should be to educate the public and force the Demos to address the issues on the left. Instead, you have made an outright endorsement for John Kerry. How pathetic. The Democrats asked Ralph Nader not to run and apparently so have the Greens. Why don’t you just ask Bush not to run? Wouldn’t that make more sense? Ralph Nader made the Green Party in this country and now you are turning your backs on him to suck up to the Demos who in turn have been swallowed by the Republicans. Fuck You. I’m voting for Nader.

  Posted by Mark Sporzynski on Jul 16, 2004 at 1:52 PM

  Here’s an idea for growing the Greens: Stop being so arrogant. Don’t run for President until you’ve captured a couple of Governorships. Don’t run for Governor of a state until you’ve captured a critical mass of seats in the state legislature as well as majorities in several city or county councils in the state. And… don’t forget the school boards.

  Meanwhile, if you really want to be different than the Dems, don’t put party interests above the interests of people, earth, and animals. If even a single species is likely to go extinct if one candidate wins but not if the other candidate wins and Green Party participation in the election is likely to swing the results toward the candidate under whom the species would be extincted then, damn it, any truly “green” party would withdraw its own bid for power among people in deference to the interests of other species.

  Posted by pattrice jones on Jul 16, 2004 at 11:32 PM

  I remain uncertain whether the Greens can be trusted. The German Greens, the major Green political party, has performed atrociously since it went into coalition government with the SPD. Greens backed the bombing in Yugoslavia, for example, and have sold out the welfare state by supporting Schroeder’s Agenda 2010. I can’t see anything different happening if the Greens became a force in the US or anywhere else.

  Posted by James Paterson on Jul 17, 2004 at 11:35 PM

  Does InTheseTimes actually edit articles?  Cobb says, “I am in no way suggesting that any one vote for John Kerry.” Yes you are, you freaking liar!  Not only that, but the Green Party has played a major role in effectively sabotaging the foremost anti-war, anti-corporate challenge to the two-party system, Ralph Nader’s campaign.  Cobb will get 50,000 votes and his message will not reach anyone outside of a small section of left-wing activists.  Nader will get millions of votes and will reach millions of ordinary people who feel disgusted with the Democrats and the Republicans and are looking for an alternative.  I wish the Greens had supported building this alternative rather than, along with the rest of the so-called “left”, jumping in bed with John Kerry and the Anybody But Bush crowd.  Vote Nader!

  Posted by Dan DiMaggio on Jul 18, 2004 at 7:58 AM

  Tuesday, July 20, 2004

  Instead of insisting on abolition of the electoral
  college and the adoption of instant runoff voting,
  Cobb is temporizing with an pusillanimous “work
  around” of not challenging “battleground states”.

  More emphasis should be put on educating the public
  about the unfairness and bias in the Electoral
  College whereby someone can win the popular vote
  but lose the election.  That seems to me to be the
  first reform which needs to be accomplished.
  Even my own supposedly “moderate Republican”
  congressman in central Illinois came out for
  abolishing the Electoral College years ago
  
  As Matt Gonzalez, president of the San Francisco
  Board of Supervisors, asked at the recent Green
  convention, “When will we be allowed to vote for
  whom we want?  2008? 2012?”

  Jim Senyszyn
  Peoria, IL

  email: jnsenyszyn@insightbb.com

  Posted by Jim Senyszyn on Jul 20, 2004 at 10:02 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

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• Growing the Green Party