What Is the U.S. Green Party Up Against? What Must It Do Now 

Posted by John Rensenbrink on 06/11/10
A quarter century has passed since the founding of the United States Green Party in 1984. Many other third parties have tried and failed during that time, a fact which is itself food for thought. Only the Libertarian Party, begun in 1972, remains as its durable companion national third party. The Green Party, like the Libertarian, perseveres in spite of enormous road blocks and daunting political storms.

It may fairly be argued that few other Green Parties in the world (there are over 90) encounter the same kind or degree of exclusion and suppression. Much of the exclusion and suppression is hidden under a cloud of lies, intimidations, and various structural exclusionary devices in the political system itself – devices that are eagerly reinforced by the privileged and petted Democratic and Republican parties. I listed these devices in my review of Theresa Amato’s Grand Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two Party Tyranny in the last issue of this magazine (Fall/Winter 2009). The two parties are preserved as window dressing. They exist as reassurances that freedom of choice is still part of the fabric of our social and political system. This is the biggest lie of all.

A key reason for the bashing and exclusion of new parties and new voices is the emergence of the United States Government as the dominant military power-center of the world. This creates a dynamic in which serious political opposition is made to look unpatriotic, dangerous to security, and very dispensable even by liberally inclined opinion leaders. The governments of most other countries do not have as big a stake or investment in the sweepstakes of foreign policy success and risk of failure. This leaves more room for political opposition and real debate. There is less political risk for influential opinion leaders.

There is another ironic side to this as well. Green Parties in other countries, when they criticize U.S. policy and imperialist operations, can do it in a much more receptive atmosphere – not only popular opinion and leading media outlets, but also the governments of their countries as well. A critical posture gets them a hearing and ready support.

The ruling political class in the United States—including the leadership echelons of the Democratic and Republican parties—are full of venom against one another within the class, but they are united around the dominating imperial role of the U.S. government at home and abroad. Steve Welzer describes this dynamic in a preceding article of this issue.

A Worse Moment?

Think about it. Could there be a worse moment in the history of the American republic to start and persist with a new political party? As noted, the institutions of the republic are crumbling—undermined and replaced by an aggressive, beyond-the-law, national executive power. Congress, in this new imperial system, is reduced to compliant complicity in war after war, supporting unheard of monies for arms and bases abroad that suck the life blood out of middle class taxpayers; and internally, Congress is buffeted and badgered by twenty thousand and more (mostly corporate) lobbyists touting alluring sums of money. Most of the Senators and Representatives fall all over themselves to get that money. 

Some longstanding structural features of the republic now begin to contribute to its decline, such as the indirect election of the president via an outmoded Electoral College and a winner-take-all system of elections. The latter guarantees a monopoly on politics by the two dominant parties and pushes would be new parties to the margins of society, or destroys them altogether, along with the fresh ideas and inventive spirits these parties have in times past contributed to the body politic. The more the two parties exclude other voices and parties, the more they decline. This has been the case since the 70’s already; their stock with the American people has never been lower.

The symbolic and material sign that rot and decay has reached the inner core of the republic is the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission on January 21 of this year. On that day, the Court sanctified the outlandish doctrine that corporations are persons; and confirmed an earlier Court decision, in Buckley vs. Valeo in 1976, that spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech. Since corporations have large disposable amounts of money and now have carte blanche from the Court to use it to foster their issues and their candidates, any pretense of free and fair competition for public office has vanished.  These newly armed persons – pretending to be citizens in their own right—stride among us, shoving us around when we don’t go quietly, just like the giant machines in ghastly human form portrayed in the current movie Avatar. 

Connect this to the hammer lock the two dominant parties have on ballot access in virtually all the states. Connect it to the dependence of major party candidates for high office, at the state and national levels, on money provided by corporate goliaths. Furthermore, connect it to the fact that according to Rob Richie of FairVote, close to nine in ten Congressional incumbents are essentially guaranteed to win no matter what kind of opponent they face; and well over half of Congressional seats are firmly settled for one party due to partisan tilts and winner-take-all rules. Connect the above web of inter-connected factors to the naked, unabashed bail-out of the bankers and other Wall Street-ers who led the country to economic ruin.

Finally, connect all this to the decade-long treatment of ordinary people as only consumers of politics. The corporate media and the two dominant parties have done this for so long that scores of millions of our citizens behave as if that’s all they are – consumers, watchers, maybe in some cases as fans, but never as engaged citizens. This makes it extremely difficult to interest people in a new party. People are either fed up with politics or regard it as a game of winners and losers. Spectator politics and withdrawal from politics characterize the relationship to politics by the great majority of the population.

Public Speech Is Degraded into Verbal Warfare

On February 15, 2010, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana announced he will not seek re-election this year. His reasons were “ever-shriller partisanship” in Washington, “brain-dead partisanship”, “stringent partisanship”.  He was mistaken in his choice of the noun but right in his choice of adjectives.  Partisanship is inextricably part of political discussion and debate. It’s part of liberty. Disagreement over values, interests, personal commitments is part of life.  The hue and cry that partisanship should be expunged from politics is mistaken and misses the point entirely. The problem is the corruption and distortion of partisanship—its descent into verbal warfare. A predatory, take-no-prisoners, devil-take-the hindmost, get-em-before-they-get-you attitude has taken over in Washington and in many state capitols.  “It’s not like going to work every day, it’s like going to war,” said David Nagle, a former congressman from Iowa, about his experience in the House of Representatives, commenting on Senator Bayh’s departure.

Speech is the life-blood of politics. If and when it turns into verbal warfare, it means the end of politics. Genuine politics, at its core, is the give and take of argument, debate, and discussion. This has enabled the human species to invent constitutions and laws and to maintain and deepen them. Politics enabled us to create the republic and is absolutely necessary if we are ever to move to a full fledged democracy. Politics is a key alternative to violence. When speech goes bad, politics goes bad and the body politic is bewildered, shredded, and turns into factions..

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, Bill Moyers wrote: “That famous definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing has come to define the present moment of American politics. No wonder people have lost faith in politicians, in parties, and in their leadership. The power of money drives cynicism deep into the heart of every level of government.”

Along with the cynicism that seeps from its pores, the sheer incompetence of the national government is visible for everyone to see.  Senator Bernie Sanders hit eloquently at some of it in a recent article for In These Times. “The United States is in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Millions of Americans continue to lose their jobs, homes, life savings and ability to send their children to college. Since December of 2007, more than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs; a staggering 17.3 per cent of the American workforce is either unemployed or underemployed, and over 6 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, the highest on record.” And then there is the stunning failure on health issues . . . the underfunded schools . . . the decrepit and dangerous infrastructure of roads and bridges. . . .

What can the Green Party do?

We can quit!

But is that wise? Is it really an option?

Let’s think again.

The above analysis of the obstacles reveals a unique opportunity for an alert political party. Yet the opportunity is there only if the Green Party now assesses its situation in the light of the utterly changed character of the United States government over what it was in an earlier time.

The party needs to shift it’s focus. Instead of thinking all levels of government are of equal importance to contest for, the party needs to direct itself frankly, clearly, and energetically to local and state legislative electoral activity and, simultaneously, direct itself to strong grass roots engagement with movements for community resilience and self-government. 

All of the high-ticket offices (President, Congress, Governor) are monopolized by the corporate/military/imperial complex. That’s not where the real action will be, can be, must be – though the party may elect a Governor here and there, or even a Congress person or even a Senator.

Something else is in the cards – something far more important. Ellen La Conte, in the article that precedes this one, outlines what this “something else” is. I will here describe, along similar lines, what this “something else” means in terms of a shift in Green Party focus and priorities. The Action articles that follow my article are case examples of what is being done and can be done in community after community both in America and in other countries.

Shift In Focus and Priorities for Action

In the Green Party future, if the Green Party seizes the historical moment, is the renewal of grass roots democracy and the growth of community-based economics in thousands of communities throughout the country. In this way, the corporate/military/imperial complex will be shorn of popular support, shorn of tax money, and shorn of legitimacy.

The struggle to attain these things is going to be intense. Mammoth corporations won’t like it and will try to stop it. They already are busy at it. Politicians of the kept-parties and military leaders will try to deflect it and force it to serve the ends of the imperial system. Government encroachment on the liberties and constitutional rights of citizens will increase even beyond what has been already endured.

Three Dimensions of the Shift

The Green Party is well situated to fight this battle. In three ways: non-violent resistance to the imperial system of the United States government; thousands of Green candidates for local offices and state legislatures; and steady and practical support by thousands of Green and green-minded activists for localization of the staples of life and for community self-governance.

In terms of resistance—the party will put priority efforts to shake loose some space and daylight for alternative voices in the imperial political system via campaigns for publicly financed elections, Instant Run-off Voting, Proportional Representation and the direct election of the president.

In terms of thousands of Green candidates for local offices and state legislatures—the party has a base in many states and communities that can be further developed and the base can be developed in areas that at present do not yet have that base.

The purpose of this resistance to the imperial power in tandem with electing a flood of Greens to state legislatures is to defend the growth of self-sustaining and self-governing communities; and to fight for policies that contribute to their further growth.

Localization, the third part of the shift, is key. The Green Party future has in it a steadily deepening operative alliance with the great waves of localization and re-localization movements that are now growing across the country and in many parts of the world.  Goals of self-governance, the affirmation of personal liberty and constitutional rights, community building, and of a transition to a sustainable society at local and regional levels will become the central focus of Green activism and Green electoral activity. It’s a transition to gradually attained self-sufficiency in food, a transition to multiple forms of renewable energy locally and regionally controlled; to a transformed transportation system featuring swift commuter trains, neighborhood walk-abouts, and walk-to-work and bicycle-to-work opportunities, a transition to locally controlled schools, locally and regionally controlled water facilities.

When the staples of life are once again within the life-structure of ordinary people in their communities, and they are not any longer dependent on mammoth corporations; and when the money they have circulates among them, and when the taxes they would otherwise yield to the national government are spent close to home, at that point the imperial system will be vulnerable to democracy and peace.

The Green Party will be part of a great national movement to get our nation to move beyond the limits of republican institutions to a fully democratic society and government. The republic begun by the founders did provide a basis for an evolution to full democracy, but left a lot undone that later generations would have to get done. Unfortunately, the republic was taken over by two immense forces: the rise of mammoth corporations with immense economic and political power and, then in tandem therewith the long descent into the maelstrom of imperial world politics. These two forces have shattered the republic. Now the long journey to democracy must be the road we travel. The Green Party can be a big help in helping the people to travel that road.

The national Green Party will return to its original intent, which is to be a helper to state and local Green parties. It will be hard for the Green Party to stop its longings for presidential prominence, and maybe there will be token or symbolic presidential campaigns, but the primary attention of the Greens will not be there.

As the Green Party enters its next quarter century, the party’s energy and focus can and will be on local/regional institutional resurgence. The driving themes will be inclusive grass roots democracy and self-governance, community-based economics, and the defense and nurturing of personal liberty and responsibility.

John Rensenbrink is co-editor of Green Horizon Magazine. He wrote “Against All Odds: The Green Transformation of American Politics” in 1999. He helped found the U.S. Green Party and the Maine Green Party. He is a member of the Green Party’s National Committee and its International Committee. He is Professor Emeritus of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College.

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