Good post about Carol Miller, Green candidate in New Mexico's third Congressional district. I'd like to briefly comment on: > By running candidates for political office, the Greens are saying, in > effect, that the failed public interest model is not enough, that it is > time to become overtly political. > > Instead of pressuring politicians from the outside, it is time to get down > and dirty and engage the political process directly, and by so doing, > recapture our government from the corporations. I admire the Green Party, and the Peace & Freedom Party, and the New Party, and the Labor Party, and I'm sure that the Natural Law Party and the Libertarian Party are also essentially good organizations, as opposed to the two "Major Parties." See the problem? See the next step? Don't all of these "third parties" need to form an alliance? Isn't it obvious that otherwise, they're all doomed to failure? Here's a basic strategy: you coalesce just long enough to win; then you fix the systemic problems; and finally you can work out the fine points of your differences in a true democratic manner. What's needed is a "Third Party" or "The Other Party" (whatever you want to call it) that has said: "We greens, libertarians, labor-people, reformers, peace-lovers etc., have agreed to set aside our minor differences until we have gained control of the government, reformed corporate law to return the corporate charter to democratic control, and to construct better representative systems (e.g., proportional representation -- which we have established within the ranks of our own coalition). "Once corporate power has been harnessed and new, more effective representative systems have been put in place, we reserve the right to disband this party, to return to the domains of our original, individual parties. This coalition is being formed under emergency conditions. Its charter is limited to addressing this emergency" > [Carol Miller of the Green Party] garnered an impressive 17 percent of > the vote My question: how many percent did the Libertarians get? How about Peace & Freedom? What about the New Party and the Labor Party? Big question: how many people voting for the lesser of two evils in that election would have voted for the Third Party if that Party was big enough to have a real chance of winning? How many unregistered voters would register if there was not only a candidate you could get excited about voting for, but one that also might win? - Joe Ferguson
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