Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion
In a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.
Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit DiscussionIn a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.
I just found the results of the Green Party caucuses in California on Super Tuesday, provided by the League of Women Voters. I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed in the results.
The candidates who have been out and hustling their way around the Green Party state meetings for months and months now got a minority of the vote.
Cynthia McKinney got 26.0%
Elaine Brown 1,330 got 4.6%
Kat Swift got 3.1%
Kent Mesplay got 2.0%
Jesse Johnson got 1.8%
Jared Ball 467 got 1.5%
Along comes Ralph Nader, waltzing in at the last minute, with his surrogate Howie Hawkins, suggesting that he just might, maybe, run for President, but he’s not sure. How much of the California Green vote did Nader get? 61 percent.
I’m groaning. Ralph Nader fails pathetically in his Green Party presidential run in 1996. So, what does the Green Party do? They nominate him again in the year 2000. Then, in the year 2004, Ralph Nader ran as an independent candidate, courted Republican support, and trashed the Green Party. So, now, in 2008, what are the Greens doing? Nominating Ralph Nader for President again.
Pardon me, is the Green Party really a political party, or is it just a stage upon which we all get to watch the Ralph Nader melodrama unfold in excruciating slow motion?
(151 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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February 10th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Nader accomplished exactly what he promised in 1996. He promised to run, but on less than $5,000, so as not to trigger the FEC filings.
In 2004, Nader never trashed the Green party. He has consistently been its best fundraiser and party builder. Though I disagreed with his 2004 independent run, he worked to get all voters, including Republicans, to support him. Lat time I checked that’s how you win elections.
As to 2008, I too wish he would make up his mind already. But you can deny he still has overwhelming grassroots support.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
He has the majority support of the small number of people who show up for Green Party caucuses. Nader does NOT, in the sense of the general election, have overwhelming grassroots support at all. In terms of all the money he took in 2004 from the Republicans to serve as a spoiler, I think Ralph Nader lost the trust of a lot of progressive Americans.
It’s amazing to me that these Green Party insiders don’t understand how spoiled Ralph Nader’s image has become.
February 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
My non-expert take on the situation is that Nader’s performance in CA is in large part due to how little media attention the Green party gets. The name “Ralph Nader” has been around in the news for a while, where as names like Swift, McKinney, Ball, Mesplay, and Johnson are really only in the vocabularies of those of us who have actively sought them out. Which means people who decided they were going to vote Green this time around but didn’t look into it saw a bunch of names on election day, saw one they recognized, and went with him.