Greens at a Crossroads
Conniff, Ruth
The Word from Washington Ruth Conniff Greens at a Crossroads It's probably unfair to be too hard on the Greens for taking such a complicated view of the 2004 Presidential election. At their...
...The Greens are still dealing with the hostility of half the nation for Ralph Nader's "spoiler" effect in 2000...
...Add to that the penumbral presence of Nader, who didn't even attend the convention, seeking the Greens' endorsement from an aloof distance...
...But 2004 is a different year...
...In 2004, there are forty-four state parties with twenty-three ballot lines (largely an effect of Ralph Nader's 2000 campaign...
...voter exchange" had...
...Many of our hard-won ballot lines will be lost in many states if we don't have a Presidential candidate on the ticket," Cobb explains...
...But Ralph Nader is a different story...
...But "not one whit on the war, the occupation, campaign finance reform, or the fact that corporations control the elections, or federal agencies...
...People should be able to run without fear...
...Mayer concedes that on judicial appointments it makes a difference if the Democrats or Republicans win the White House...
...Cobb got big cheers as he extolled the formation of the Green Party's black caucus, and announced at the end of the speech that the caucus had endorsed him...
...David Cobb takes a milder view...
...Ruth Conniff is Political Editor of The Progressive...
...Kerry calls for more troops in Iraq, and the Democrats and Kerry are little better than Bush on many issues, Camejo says...
...More procedural disputes...
...Cobb and his running mate, Pat LaMarche, urge progressives in "safe states" to vote Green, and tell those in the swing states to "vote their conscience"-a hint that lefties might want to go for Kerry this year that caused Camejo's lip to curl...
...With only $30,000 raised and virtually no name recognition, the Green Presidential candidate won't pose much of a threat this year...
...This focus on process and election reform is an unsexy but fundamental concern for the Greens...
...Carl Mayer, the Nader campaign's treasurer, told me that Nader had called Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe to say if the Democrats keep tearing down his signs and trying to block ballot access "he'll camp out in the swing states...
...He welcomes people who wouldn't come in if he were just a Green...
...More Green growing pains...
...Chasing Camejo across the skyway from the Hyatt Regency to Milwaukee's downtown convention center, I tried to get it all straight...
...Cobb takes strong exception to the idea that Bush and Kerry are interchangeable...
...At their convention in Milwaukee at the end of June, the arguments were flying: for running all out against the Democrats again, for running only in "safe" states where they wouldn't affect the outcome of the Presidential election, and even for not running a candidate for President at all...
...There are 205 Green officeholders across the country, Cobb points out (though most of those are in nonpartisan local offices...
...But for procedural reasons, the Greens need to run someone for President in 2004...
...Nader didn't come to the convention, Camejo said, "because he promised not to interfere" with the Greens' decision, and "because he wants to build a broader coalition...
...Fold the tent on building a progressive third party when the going gets tough...
...Other Nader folks at the convention repeated Camejo's outrage at the Democrats' efforts to keep Nader off the ballot in various states...
...Nader told Russert on Meet the Press he would come back on the show to reassess his candidacy if he is taking more votes from Kerry than Bush as the election draws near...
...No, we did not...
...He cites statistics: In 1996, there were ten organized state Green parties, five with a ballot line...
...If voters could cast ballots for first- and second-choice candidates in an "instant runoff" election, there would be no downside to voting for quixotic progressive candidates...
...As for the question of reelecting Bush: "Ralph will never withdraw," says Camejo...
...Nader wants to campaign nationally and appeal to independents, Reform Party members, progressives, populists, and contest corporate power, which controls everything, including the election process," says Mayer...
...What are we to make of the possibility of reelecting Bush...
...Or, as another Nader supporter at the convention put it, the Greens are just too "kooky" for Ralph...
...He'll have fewer ballot lines without the Greens but could get into a serious battle with the Dems in a few key states...
...This campaign will stand against the Bush/Kerry pro-war stance," Camejo told the convention, "because the biggest political error made by progressives is instead of opposing a policy, they oppose an individual, and think that if you change the individual, you change the policy...
...And we're doing it in a voting system that attempts to force progressives to vote against what they hate instead of for what they want...
...But Nader himself has said that there is a substantial difference between the two political parties, and he told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that beating Bush is the first priority in the next election...
...The Democrats have been harassing and filing lawsuits and trying to deny him the right to be in the debates...
...People who tell Nader not to run, what they're really opposing is the right of citizens to pull another lever besides Kerry or Bush...
...In any event, it won't matter much what the Cobb/LaMarche message is...
...Or stay true to principle and ride a wave of opposition to the war in Iraq and the corporate takeover of our democracy-all the way to another victory for George W Bush...
...Sounds like the old Nader campaign of 2000...
...Yes, we did...
...We should have the right to run...
...Besides which, the Greens are the only real anti-war party...
...He got the crowd to chant along with him: "The solution is instant runoff voting...
...The great uncovered story of the Green Party, he says, is its tremendous growth at the local, grassroots level...
...They have to decide what they want to do...
...Cobb proclaimed at the convention to loud cheers...
...Nader left it to his running mate, Peter Camejo, former Green candidate for governor of California, to make an impassioned argument at the convention for running aggressively against the Democrats...
...Those are very important issues," says Mayer, "process, democracy, the third party movement...
...In 2000, twenty-one parties, ten ballot lines...
...Could sheer stubbornness-and anger at the Democrats' tactics- keep him in the race...
...A correction was issued-the caucus had not formally endorsed Cobb, but, instead, something called the "D.C...
...While it was confusing trying to sort out all the Greens' various positions, it's easy to sympathize with them...
...In other words, yes...
...What is the right thing to do...
...Why isn't Nader running as a Green...
...It was no surprise that David Cobb, champion of the "safe state" strategy, emerged as the party's nominee...
...Do Democrats want to have a debate on ideas or challenge signatures...
...That's not true," caucus members shouted at each other from the audience...
Vol. 68 • August 2004 • No. 8
