Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Bill And Opus

So I think I finally have come to blame the Green Party for our current mess. I came to that conclusion on my extra long drive home from volleyball.

I'm not a member of any party, and vote pretty much all over the map: Dem, GOP, Libertarian, Progressive/Socialist, even Natural Law. I seriously considered voting for Nader in 2000, but I wasn't entirely impressed with him, and yes, I did the electoral calculation that I would rather not take a chance that a vote for Nader would be a vote for Bush. Cynical, but it's my right as a voter to decide how to exercise my franchise.

And of course that means so do all you folks who voted Green in 2000. I'm not blaming you in the sense that some angry Dems do. What I'm blaming is the choice(s) the party made. I already had a sense that Bush was going to be very destructive to this nation and certainly my fears have been borne out, albeit a bit more in the extreme than I anticipated. So I didn't want to take any chance that he would get elected.

I'm one of those pragmatists who doesn't like the 2 party system, but am willing to live with it for the moment if all we're going to get is symbolic victories. Great, so Nader got 5%. Congratulations! Now we have an economy in the shitter, eroding civil rights and two quagmires.

Gore might not have been as liberal as the Greens wanted, but he would have been infinitely better than what we got. I think where the Greens should focus is making the party a viable local force. Work on getting viable candidates at the State level. Get a couple seats in Congress.

In other words, let's take some baby steps. Try to build a good grassroots organization and local strength first, rather than trying to leap into the fray for the Executive Branch of the US. If you can prove to be a good alternative to the Dems and GOP, then you'll be able to springboard into higher office. Until then, I think all you're going to do is give the GOP even more opportunities to fuck up this country.

I think at least one of my readers is a Green (who this time 'round advocates voting Dem). Any others? Am I full of shit, or on to something?

Rock on,
ntodd  ¶ 9:34 PM