Measuring Nader Instead of the Greens?

Deck Decker says, in "It's All Nader's Fault, And Other Fairy Tales" that no matter these sins of Nader's candidacy it was Gore's election to lose. True.

But the situation is far more complex and stained than any commentator I have found has yet let on. Nader's candidacy under the name of the Greens should never have been allowed to take place. The Green Party was founded on the principal of think globally, act locally.

I was one of the founding members of the Green party in New Mexico. We carried on long discussions and exchanged literature with groups forming on other parts of the country on precisely the question of how to run candidates in a way which "actualized" the credo of thinking globally and acting locally. This concept and the accepting of its truth is one of the core foundations of Green political thought.

The practical consequence of this is that you simply do not, if you are the Green Party, submit candidates or a slate of candidates on the national level, ie., the Presidency of the United States, until you have Green Party members in the majority of the boards of education, city councils, management districts, etc on a national level. I live in a town with a large number of Green sitting government officals. They are no better or worse than other politicians. But my local area is one of only a handful in the country in which Greens hold any power whatsoever.

The Green Party simply shattered their own prinicipals by running a candidate for President. It's a damn shame. All of us suffer because of this.

Nader on the other hand is a different story. He should have refused to allow himself to be grafted onto the Green Party like some kind of hood ornament. Or, if the situation were reversed (I have no idea how the internal politics worked here), the green Party should never have allowed itself to be grafted onto Ralph Nader like some kind of hood ornament.

Either way it was a failure of the worst kind for the Green Party, and it shows. Their website has the cobwebs of old design and the stench of a lack of interest or effort on the part of the webmaster.

I don't know whether Nader is a rube or if his mendacity rivals Bush, but when folks make fun of him, rue his run, or otherwise critique his character I hope they throw the same aspersions the way of the Green Party. Goodness knows they deserve it.

Decker later dismisses the bombing of Yugoslavia as based on "trumped up charges of genocide." Obviously it takes a whole lot of trumping to impress Mr. Deckert.

Posted by filchyboy at September 19, 2003 10:02 PM | TrackBack