Before anyone gets me wrong, the Green Party’s ideals and principles are first-rate; I’m in close alignment with them and am attuned to the party’s common-sense, fair and comprehensive platform. Its notions on issues such as climate change, equal justice under the law, demilitarizing our country, establishing fair immigration policies and once and for all addressing poverty in America resonate deeply with me.
However, with that said, the Green Party is going about achieving its goals ass-backwards, and the course it appears to be on will actually hurt the country more than help it.
One doesn’t have to have too long of a political memory to recall what Ralph Nader’s Green Party candidacy did to the country back in 2000 when he helped to derail Al Gore’s chances of beating George Bush — and the terrible price the country paid for it in terms of lives, blood and treasure. Now Green Party presumptive nominee Jill Stein wants to do it again, and now wants Cleveland’s Nina Turner as her wingman (or woman if you want to be politically correct).
Green Party candidates obviously feel they have to run for the presidency every now and then to keep the organization viable, fearing that if they don’t make some noise from time to time, no one will know about them and the party (actually a movement) won’t grow. I get that, but now — this year — is not the time.
And here’s where they are wrong in terms of building a viable political party: The only way any kind of third political party is going to gain traction enough to make a difference in America is for the members to build it from the grassroots up, not the top down. They have to begin by winning at the precinct committeeperson level, then move up to the city councilperson or alderman level, and on up to mayors, congresspersons, governors, senators, and then run a candidate for the presidency. There are no shortcuts. None.
What Jill Stein is doing by running for president is merely self-aggrandizing grandstanding — a pitiable cry of “Look at me, please look at me!” cloaking herself in the banner of the Green Party for respectability. And now she wants Turner to book passage on the Titanic with her. But it won’t work, what she is doing simply — by the harm her candidacy can cause — borders on being un-American.
After Nader’s doomed effort of 2000, all kinds of so-called political scientists published papers claiming that his candidacy isn’t what sunk Gore’s opportunity to be president, and Nader still claims to this day that it wasn’t his fault. Bullshit, total bullshit.
If Jill Stein truly loves this country as much as she pretends to, then she would drop her Quixotic bid for the White House and get behind Hillary (even if she has to hold her nose) so that Donald Trump isn’t allowed to set foot inside the Oval Office, except as a visitor. For her to do anything else — considering how critical this election is — is tantamount to treachery to the Republic.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: The Danger of the Green Party”
Tim Ferris
Madame Gloria and I waited at David Ellison’s offices a few weeks ago to meet Jill Stein when she was in town. There were a good number of well-wishers present who waited and waited and waited. We went to dinner after a while, and the rest continued to wait. Jill never did show to acknowledge her faithful and ardent admirers. Instead, she tried to leverage media time at CSU. She broke the schedule and broke faith with her supporters. She doesn’t have what it takes to be a campaigner, and certainly is not a fit leader at this point. She’s an attractive idea of an alternative, if one goes on profile and appearance.
Jerry Dolcini
The Green Party is growing as Evil and Lesser Evil continue their warmongering and racism. Jill Stein is not afraid to stand for a peace economy, to attack the militarization of the police, to denounce the terrorist Israeli government, and to protect our planet from fracking Fossil Fools. She is also proud to wear a Black Lives Matter t-shirt. I will vote for the greater good.
Concerning Ralph Nader: he has always placed people first and is probably our greatest living American. Jeb Bush and his Florida cohorts gerrymandered his brother into thei White House War Room. Al Gore would have continued the same war economy if he were president. Obama had his chance also but he has always been financed by Defense Dept contractors so our foreign policy continues to BOMB and support Israel’s apartheid regime. Pax