Polidoc will be releasing more videos this week. Until then, enjoy the soulful song candidate Jesse Johnson put out at the 2008 Green Party National Convention on July 12, 2008 at Chicago’s Symphony Hall.
Johnson moved into electoral activism after years of absence from his home state. He was appalled at the destruction of his native blue ridge mountains by profit driven coal companies. A former Republican, Johnson represents the Libertarian Greens; in the past, he was endorsed by Mike Gravel.
Johnson continues his electoral activism in West Virginia, where the Green Party’s affiliate, The Mountain Party, has nominated him to run for Governor. Johnson is scheduled to be in two debates in October, when election season really heats up.
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The libertarian case for Greens has a name: HEALING OUR WORLD IN AN AGE OF AGGRESSION.
Yes, although I usually recommend the free download version:
http://ruwart.com/Healing/rutoc.html
After all, we would expect our Green friends to approach this with some skepticism, much as we would if someone was trying to convert us, and may not want to spend money on a Libertarian book.
I also highly recommend Roderick Long’s essay
http://praxeology.net/blog/2006/11/24/greensleeves-was-all-my-joy
However, the following is probably not helpful:
It is the hook’d on phonix for social democrats converting to classical liberalism/libertarianism.
Although having your beliefs put down and called uneducated seems to work for you, most people become defensive when they are subject to this type of harsh approach, and tend to become more close minded and dead set against being receptive to your argument.
I think that most “progressives†were, like me, brainwashed by government education and would open up to the true tradition of liberalism if a) It were exposed to them and b) The LP didn’t pain a false conservative face on libertarianism.
I think there is a lot of truth to this, but again the use of the term brainwashed is a red flag that will keep many people from being receptive to our message. Most people do not take kindly to being told they are ignorant or brainwashed.
Although I was never in the Green Party, I probably would have been if they had been ballot qualified in my state in the early 1990s.
I am thinking about joining now, although I would probably face even more hostility to my views in the Greens than I do in the LP – I think keeping a foot in both may be the way to go.
I don’t think that either side is necessarily brainwashed or in need of remedial education. I would like to approach this as a sincere dialogue, with an open mind that I have at least as much to learn as I have to teach.
For what it’s worth:
Cynthia McKinney was the most “qualified” from a professional background standpoint. It remains to be seen whether her campaign will succeed in making the Green Party more diverse.
From what I saw, it is a little bit less “white” than the LP, but still overwhelmingly so. The gender balance was better.
The LP would have done well to run Mary Ruwart, and/or Chris Bennett for VP. But they too went with what seemed to be a better qualified professional background.
Even after being corrected, you repeat this, Gregg. Ralph is not white.
Most people who take race classifications as having a basis in fact (I am not one), including the USA regime, count Arabs as being white.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_definitions_of_race
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States_Census
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people
I never said that McKinney was weaker than any of the other candidates (other than Nader, who was a draft candidate by many Greens), I was simply saying that many Greens were backing her for the wrong reasons.
GE is correct in that if the race/gender issues HAD been reversed, alot of the support McKinney got would have gone to other candidates.
The libertarian case for Greens has a name: HEALING OUR WORLD IN AN AGE OF AGGRESSION.
It is the hook’d on phonix for social democrats converting to classical liberalism/libertarianism. I think that most “progressives” were, like me, brainwashed by government education and would open up to the true tradition of liberalism if a) It were exposed to them and b) The LP didn’t pain a false conservative face on libertarianism.
McKinney is not an affirmative action case, though. She is clearly the most qualified of the candidates in the running, and Alan Augustson was not. I did not mean to imply otherwise. I’m just saying that if Augustson were the black female and McKinney the white male, maybe the lesser candidate would have been nominated.
It all seems like senseless mind games that will settle them in their final swings. GE, get ready to prepare the LP case to disgruntled Greens. Just don’t call them socialist idiots, it might scare them off.
Yes, I’ve heard for years that everything (substance included) aside, the Greens were deadset on nominating a female candidate.
Some of the Greens I’ve worked with even treat race and gender like plusses and minuses with candidates. We always talk about how this minority candidate will win over this new constituency, but they never do.
It’s always the same white crowd backing the minority candidate, expecting a flood of new people of color to come swarming in.
But it never happens.
And in the end, it just makes us look like we’re putting up a token and patting ourselves on the back for how tolerant we are.
I’d much rather back a stellar candidate that just happens to be female/black…etc than a female/black candidate… and openly discourage white males from running.
And I’ve happily worked on the campaigns and internal elections on behalf of candidates that were black/female/gay..etc.. because they were the best candidate with whom I shared values. Not because I would feel good about myself for voting for a minority.
Too many Greens I worked with seemed to be pulled in the opposite direction.
My rejection to Ralph being labeled white isn’t because I want to embrace identity politics. It’ s because it’s just factually wrong and because Gregg was corrected about this once already, he acknowledged it…. and now he’s repeating what he knows now to be untrue.
And it shocks me how many Greens repeat this, no matter how many times they’re corrected about it.
Because it makes them feel better about nominating McKinney.
Hell, most of them talk far more about her being a woman of color than they do her being a former member of Congress.
One of the reasons I left the Greens.
I was in the GP in 2004, and it was with great regret that they nominated David Cobb. There were no other candidates of color or female genitalia (aside from that strange Sheila lady). Virtually everyone I talked to said they would absolutely nominate a woman, no matter what, in 2008. David Cobb himself said this was a priority. Alan Augustson has his story. And hey, I’m pretty sure Mike Gillis said something of this nature earlier (am I wrong, Mike?)
In Michigan, there was a bloc of Greens who voted against running white candidates against black Democrats, no matter what. Even a white socialist female against John Conyers. They were not the majority, but still… They were not pariahs or outcasts of the Sonny Landham variety either.
Yes, and Nader is not “white.”
“MT – The GP is anti-white male. They won’t nominate him.”
They nominated a white male in 2004.
“Hell, until this year we had nominated nothing but white males for Prez.”
Even after being corrected, you repeat this, Gregg. Ralph is not white.
The first time is a mistake. The second time can only be called a lie.
I find the whole subject irrelevant, but you’re factually wrong.
G.E.
I don’t believe you know what you are talking about here. I am about as active as one can get in the GP, and I have never felt anything approaching an anti-white male sentiment.
Hell, until this year we had nominated nothing but white males for Prez.
MT – The GP is anti-white male. They won’t nominate him.
He’s a good speaker, much better than any McKinney speech I’ve heard. I think if he runs, he could take 2012.
BTW, why can’t we have singing at the LP conventions? 😀