I usually reserve furious tirades for insidious Republicans, but the fact that the Green Party is still whimpering makes my blood curl. A week or two ago, Ralph Nader began entertaining the notion of another presidential run on the deflating logic that the Democrats aren't gonna win anyway, so why not screw them over a little extra? He can no longer make the argument that the views of extreme left America aren't represented.
We've got John Kerry and his outstanding record on the environment and gay rights leading the charge. We have Dick Gephardt getting the international union backing that Lenin would salivate for. We even have the Reverend Al dropping issues like bombs that Ralph hasn't even heard about--like giving 600,000 voters in D.C. a congressional representative. No, Ralph is getting older and more paranoid--nervous that what seemed to be the cusp of a revolution in 2000 was just really a lot of confused college kids who didn't realize the consequences of their actions, too young to know the horrors of Nixon and Reagan that they would force America to relive under this regime.
Ralph talks about running because he's nervous his flag-bearer, Dennis Kucinich, just isn't cutting it. On nine out of 10 issues Dennis stands with the Green Party, and has thus won the affection at Dartmouth of the left-wing contingent slowly moving up the ladder of political pragmatism. The Koose is pulling less than single digits in some states, although he's up to three or four percent in California last time I checked.
But lo! The Green Party has responded to Nader's assertions tepidly, stating that they might endorse a more (what could possibly be the adjective) candidate ex-Congressman Cynthia McKinney. Now I've seen McKinney, and she's a legit speaker; she would definitely draw disillusioned blacks into the Green Party, a task which Nader completely soiled on in 2000. But that's where it ends. The Green Party needs to give up its pipe dream and come home.
In a wide open primary, what on Earth makes them think they need to make their voices heard more than every other non-conservative in America? You think if Smokey Joe Lieberman loses the primary, centrist-hawkish Democrats will launch their own non-viable candidate? It's sheer arrogance to think that after these primaries are over, the Greens have the legitimacy to launch their own candidate.
In the long term, where is this Green crusade going? It never pulled the Democratic Party to the left like it was supposed to for a second--the voices of the extreme are always more powerful inside the system than outside. Republican candidates have to go to Bob Jones University because the conservatives in their party have a voice, and will turn on a candidate who denounces their right-wing nature, like McCain in 2000. Heck, McCain would have beaten Gore in a landslide, but not being able to placate conservative wackos did him in before he got half-way through the primaries.
Because so many of their peers have defected and forfeited their voice, liberal Democrats are having a tough time getting their way in the party, where the DLC is calling all the shots these days. Well I don't know about you, but I don't know what Al From and Bruce Reed have accomplished to give them the power in the party they have now, but the only way to take it back is to get an injection of liberals into our party right away. Otherwise we will fulfill the partly-true accusation of Howard Dean and become the party of Bush-lite.
The logic that the Greens should abandon the national stage and go local is just as preposterous. If a district is really liberal enough to elect a Green to any position of importance (and where could this happen outside of California or Madison?), then what could a Green in office accomplish that the same person could not accomplish as a Democrat? If you want to institute publicly financed elections, vote Democrat and get a liberal into office who will do it. It's a lot easier than starting a third party, I'm sure.
But if the Greens don't come home in 2004, somebody's gonna have to pay, and I'm looking Ralph's way. You're a consumer advocate, eh? Well, step in this race and I will consume you--the fires of hell will scorch you years before they torch Aschroft's rotting carcass, and I'll sit there with my now finally legal 40 of Olde English watching. Welcome to the show, Ralphie.
