so, i’ve been asked many times, why don’t i support the green party?
i do support the green party. i very much support the legislative aims of the green party. ideologically i’m in sync with the ideological positions of the green party.
but i also like the idea of those ideological positions being turned into real legislation. and i think it’s slightly dangerous to have a small party where everyone agrees with each other. in my life i have learned and grown by having my ideological positions challenged, not reinforced. i used to be a communist when i was in college. then i went to eastern europe and i saw that the practical application of communist ideology was a disaster.
as much as i support the legislative goals of the green party i’m also a bit concerned about the self-congratulatory nature of groups of like-minded people. i know, cos i’ve oftentimes been a self-congratulatory ideological extremist. one of the reasons that i actually like the two party system is because it’s a system that promotes moderation and compromise.
that might be a very unpopular thing to say, but i believe it to be true. through moderation and compromise we learn. through intransigence and extremism we stagnate.
i went to a meeting of marxists in nyc a year ago and it was tragic. people still arguing about issues that were inportant to them but that no one else in the rest of the world cared about. to live too far on the fringes is to run the risk of the world cared about. to live too far on the fringes is to run the risk of irrelevance, even if you have the best intentions of the world. the marxists at this meeting were kind and smart people. but they had made the mistake of only hanging out with other marxists for the last 30 years.
and ralph nader? granted, he’s been involved in a lot of really wonderful developments for consumer protection, etc. but he’s a frightening demagogue. and i’m sorry if my saying that offends some of you. the moment that he said that there was no difference between the republicans and the democrats was the moment that i realized that he is a frightening man.
as i wrote a few months ago:
democrats are pro-choice, republicans are not.
democrats are pro gun control, republicans are not.
democrats are pro education, republicans are not.
democrats are pro civil rights, republicans are not. etc.
perhaps gloria steinhem and the leaders of every notable environmetal and human rights organization in the united states are right to criticize nader.
he’s a scary man, seemingly more interested in fame than in achieving positive legislative goals.
an interesting quote from an anonymous source:
‘al gore used money to try to win the election, whereas ralph nader used the election to try to win money’
sorry. but it’s true. i think that so many people loathe the green party (i don’t, though) because the green party used the election as a platform to gain federal funding, and as a result we will have john ashcroft as attorney general.
i know some of you are probably angry at what i’ve written here, but you must realize that we are essentially on the same side.
we don’t need a schism within the left. we need this dialectic. it’s healthy. and as i wrote earlier, i do very much support the legislative goals of the green party. but i think that it’s more important to be involved in a movement that actually can accomplish some of those legislative goals rather than leave the legislative process to a very united and very scary republican right wing.
united we stand, divided we fall.
moby