December 30, 2008
Identity Politics, R.I.P.
The End of the Green Party
By JOHN WALSH
After the election of ’08 it is clearer than ever that the Green Party of the U.S. (GPUS) now lies in the political graveyard. GPUS, R.I.P. Here we attempt a badly needed postmortem.
Little Ballot Access Work and Less Fund Raising.
As 2008 unfolded, it was clear to all that ballot access was priority number one for the GPUS and fundraising priority number two. So I volunteered to be on the Ballot Access Committee, whose chair was also co-chair of the entire National Committee. But the Ballot Access Committee was completely inactive, much to my surprise; it had few members, no co-chair as required, and had never held a conference call! I tried to arrange a conference call, but the chair was clearly not eager to do so. Another GPUS activist from CT joined my effort, and together we eventually managed a conference call. But the talk was empty and impractical. As it came time for our first ballot access effort in one Western state, we were stymied by lack of funds. The fund raising effort was also non-existent. We managed to raise enough money for that first effort due to a bootstrap effort by a CA activist and Nader supporter who was not even on the committee. But it was clear that there was no meaningful fund raising effort. No serious ballot access work, priority one; and no serious fund raising, priority two. It became crystal clear that the GPUS was “not serious,” as has been said so often. Shortly thereafter I resigned from the NC.
Nader Decides Not to Challenge McKinney for 2008 Presidential Nomination.
As the nominating convention drew near in the summer of 2008, the two leading candidates were Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. Both have done many fine things, but Nader clearly was the better known candidate with more fund raising prowess and with likelihood of having an impact in ’08. But he scared the hell out of the DemoGreens who knew quite well that he would challenge Obama on many issues ranging from the war on Afghanistan to Single-payer health care in an effective way that would receive more publicity than McKinney, whatever her other virtues, might garner. The DemoGreens wanted no compromise when it came to Nader. And although Nader could surely have won the nomination, he withdrew wishing no fight with McKinney, which would have only exacerbated the divisions in the GPUS. Here Nader was not only magnanimous, but he was right in a larger sense as shown below.
The Presidential Election and the Humiliating Performance of the GPUS.
The great fear among the Naderites was that without the help of the GPUS, Nader could not get on the ballot in a sufficient number of states since the GPUS already had ballot access in many places due to the work of many at the grass roots (this author included) . So how did the election work out? The statistics are quite revealing. Starting from scratch and raising money as he went, Nader got on the ballot in 45 states plus DC. McKinney using the Green “infrastructure” got on the ballot in only 32 states, less than Barr for the Libertarians (45 states) or Baldwin and the Constitutionalists (37 states). Nader did better on his own with his own activist following than did the Greens. In fact he got on the ballot in more states than he did in 2000 when he was the GPUS nominee. If one looks at fundraising the contrast is just as stark, with Nader raising $4,496,180 and McKinney a skimpy $240,130 which is not even sufficient for a decent Congressional campaign. And the popular vote among third party candidates was: 736,804 for Nader, 524,524 for Barr, 196,461 for Baldwin and 161,195 for McKinney. These numbers alone are testimony to the abject failure of the GPUS as an electoral force.
The GPUS Demeans Cynthia McKinney.
But the behavior of the GPUS toward McKinney was downright insulting. The insult to McKinney came in two ways. First of all, DemoGreens went over to Obama, giving Cynthia a pat on the head as they went. A good example is Green guru Ted Glick who proclaimed that, although he “supported” McKinney, he hoped Obama would win and was contributing to the Obama campaign, said dollar contribution being a first for him. What kind of party i turns on its own candidate? But the insult came in another way. Cynthia McKinney took many extraordinarily courageous positions in Congress over the years. She was an outstanding leader there on issues of peace and justice. But this record was always secondary in the campaign that the GPUS ran. She was first and foremost a black woman candidate running with another minority female candidate. Now that in itself is a very good thing, although Obama upstaged them with this kind of Identity Politics. But what about McKinney’s other achievements? Most notably she is the first major Democratic politician and the first Congressperson to jump ship on the Democrat Party. Of course the DemoGreens wanted no such cutting edge claim to a GPUS campaign. So the GPUS was happy to see the color of McKinney’s skin as more important than the content of her character! This is the road down which “gonadal politics” leads us. (It is also hard to comprehend why Ralph Nader, gets no credit from the Gonadal Politicians for being an Arab American, perhaps the group suffering most discrimination these days.)
Please read the full article at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh12302008.html
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