[Marxism] 2008 Green possibilities

[Anthony Boynton]

An article from the Nation, found on the Green Party
USA website. 

Anthony


Greens Hear Nader, McKinney and Ponder the Politics of
2008
John Nichols
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The Green Party's national meeting in Reading, Pa.,
highlighted the fact that there are a good many
Americans who want an alternative to the often
disappointing choices offered them by the Republican
and Democratic parties. Featuring major addresses by
consumer advocate and former presidential candidate
Ralph Nader, as well as former U.S. Rep. Cynthia
McKinney ☼, D-Ga., the annual "Green for a
Change" gathering held July 12-15 attracted hundreds
of activists from across the country.

Neither Nader or McKinney is running for the
presidency now. But their appearances at a meeting
that was seen as an opportunity for announced and
potential candidates to meet and greet Green activists
from around the country was significant.

Many Greens believe that disenchantment with the
failure of congressional Democrats to draw down the
war in Iraq and hold President Bush and Vice President
Cheney to account will provide an opening for a third
party of the left in 2008. There are also Greens who
believe that a possible independent candidacy by New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might free up thinking
with regard to the presidential race -- get voters
thinking outside the two-party box -- and in so doing
create opportunities for a Green presidential
candidate to get more attention. (A similar scenario
played out in 1980, when the independent candidacy of
maverick Republican John Anderson drew attention to
Libertarian and Citizen party campaigns.)

To make any kind of breakthrough, however, Greens will
need a national ticket that can earn notice from a
media that does not treat parties that go by names
other than "Democrat" and "Republican seriously.

It is no secret that there are Greens who would like
to see a "name" candidate like Nader or McKinney as
the party's presidential nominee in 2008, and some who
would like to see the two maverick political figures
team up as a Nader-McKinney or McKinney-Nader ticket.
Even a few of the party's lesser-known contenders are
indicating that they would step aside to make way for
Nader, McKinney or the both of them. One announced
candidate for the Green nomination, veteran New York
activist Jerry Kann, released a statement declaring
that he was running in hopes that his campaign would
lay the groundwork for "individuals of real stature to
be the Green Party standard-bearers in 2008."

Said Kann, "The Green Party has a tremendous
opportunity this year to step up to the plate and be
the independent third party that so many Americans
want. And I believe there are two individuals who are
far and away the best choices to lead the Green Party
in 2008--Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney."

Whether Nader or McKinney run, the Greens will be a
presence in 2008. The party, which is now active in 46
states -- thanks to the recent affiliation of the West
Virginia Mountain Party, a previously independent
third party that always had a green tint – has
committed resources to a campaign to obtain ballot
status in all 50 states and the District of Columbia
by next fall.

That's a tall order. The deck is stacked against small
parties that are seeking places on ballots that
Democrats and Republicans prefer to keep to
themselves. In particular, Democrats who believe that
Nader's 2000 candidacy cost them the states of New
Hampshire and Florida – and, with those losses, the
presidency – have been aggressive about trying to keep
the Greens off state ballots.

Nader has made opening up the political process a
major focus of his work in recent years. On Saturday,
he headlined a "Ballot Access Rally" in Reading.

Nader was brimming with ideas about establishing
federal standards for ballot access in order to
prevent states from erecting unreasonable barriers.
Denouncing what he described as a "two-party
dictatorship," Nader sounded like a candidate – or, at
the least, like someone who wanted to make sure that
American voters would have more than two choices in
2008.

Asked specifically if he plans to run, Nader replied,
"It's too early to say. I'll make up my mind before
the end of the year." But he did say he has been
encouraged to consider another run.

McKinney was similarly circumspect. The former
congresswoman's not a candidate yet, she said, but she
is talking seriously to a number of Green activists.
And, McKinney added, she too is getting plenty of
encouragement to make the race.

That was evident in Reading on Sunday, when McKinney's
speech was greeted with chants of "Run, Cynthia, run!"

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John Nichols' new book is THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT:
The Founders' Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone's Tim
Dickinson hails it as a "nervy, acerbic, passionately
argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich
examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of
the 'heroic medicine' that is impeachment with a call
for Democratic leaders to 'reclaim and reuse the most
vital tool handed to us by the founders for the
defense of our most basic liberties.'" 


       
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