14 September 2015

The Really Green Party

The Really Green Party
or
Why a Green Party Webpage Banned Me
by
Mike Raymond

     Several months ago, when I spoke up and suggested that our party leader, Dr. Jill Stein, not run on a Green Party ticket for President because Senator Bernie Sanders holds nearly identical views with Dr. Stein, I encountered a number of Green Party supporters who castigated me soundly for that position. My defense was that we should focus our resources on support for Green candidates at lower levels of government and not compete with Senator Sanders for the White House since he has a better chance of winning that race than Dr. Stein has. My rationale has been that Bernie Sanders can take our Green causes and ideals to a national stage whereas Dr. Stein more than likely could not.
     The Democratic Party race and convention will be front page news next year, and if a candidate speaks up for Green ideals even though not being in the Green Party, I thought that would be a better way to help more people see the value of causes such as the preservation of our environment, stopping war and teaching peace, ending government corruption, eliminating the theft of wealth by the one percent, healing the rift in race relations, and improving the health and stability of the working class in America.
     The causes and ideals that the Green Party represents are what I feel is in the best interests of the future of the United States and of the world in general. I speak up for these causes; but I am not under the illusion that these noble ideals must be wrapped only in the Green Party banner. 
     If a Democrat, Libertarian, or even a Republican were to say, for example, we must stop polluting our water supplies and dumping oil in our oceans, I would cheer and support that person in that endeavor. As the old saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” I don't care if it's served on a ceramic plate, in a wooden bowl, or wrapped in a newspaper. 
      The causes are greater than any one person; the ideals are more valuable than any one party. For comments and questions along these lines, I was thrown out of the Green Party USA Facebook discussions and banned from contributing to or even reading that page any longer.
     Dr. Stein and the Green Party hold high ideals and harbor a love for our country and our world that is rarely matched among us. But let's stop being party shills, break the mould, and start being spokespeople for ideas. It is ideas that have power and yield consequences, not political parties. A political party is a messenger for its ideas, not an end in itself.
     The Green Party presidential candidate wants to be in the presidential debates, and that would be a beautiful step in the direction of democracy in America. I suggest, though, that in the interest of integrity and honesty, Green Party operatives stop punishing their own people for expressing their opinions and offering their ideas. We are not mindless robots meant simply to drone the party mantras.
     We should allow free discussion without resorting to emotional outbursts or excessively legalistic wrangling and nitpicking. If we won't allow free debate among ourselves without censorship or banning each other, then by what right has the Green Party to ask the nation to let our candidate debate the other candidates in a national forum?