The majority political party in 20 years
By Jerry Kann
Manhattan Green Party

Where do you want the Green Party to be in 20 years? In 2025, I want our party to be the majority political party in the United States. I want most of the members of Congress, most governors and most members of state legislatures to be Greens.

This is a very ambitious goal, but by no means an unrealistic one. History has many examples of small upstart parties rising to majority status, notably the Republican Party under Lincoln and the British Labour Party in the first half of the last century. The next third-party success story could be the Green Party of the United States (GP-US).

But if people see the Greens collaborating with, say, the Democratic Party in presidential elections, they will begin to ask what makes us Greens different. If they see us retreating from the battleground states for fear of taking away votes from the Democrats--as indeed the official Green Party campaign did in 2004--they will ask the reasonable question: why should I bother supporting Greens if it's just a roundabout way of supporting Democrats?

Peter Camejo and others have established Greens for Democracy and Independence (GDI). The group advocates for a one-person/one-vote system within the GP-US for selecting leadership bodies and our presidential ticket and for complete independence from other political parties.

In contrast to the GDI group (Nader Greens) are those Greens who supported David Cobb for president. It's instructive in this context to examine Cobb's statements, going back to the start of his campaign in late 2003.

Cobb's statement on "Proposed Overall Strategy" centers on the idea that George W. Bush is a menace of historic proportions; therefore the GP-US must give the Democrats enough indirect support to help them beat Bush. Cobb suggests that the Democrats aren't so bad after all: "It is unacceptable to claim there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties." Cobb implies that it's in our best interests to give the Democrats another chance: "If we want our party to grow, we must demonstrate to the American people…that we hear their concerns about the danger Bush poses." But he wants us to do more than simply "hear their concerns." Cobb wants us to demonstrate this by surrendering the one thing that ensures the Green Party's relevance in American politics--our independence.

When Cobb addressed a gathering of Greens and Democrats in New York in early January, he referred to his inside/outside strategy for working with the Democrats. He spoke glowingly about his recent meeting with Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). A visit to the PDA website (www.pdamerica.org) shows plainly what they think of the Greens. Their manifesto states: "The answer is not a progressive third party." Why should we Greens be interested in working with people who would like to see us disappear?

California Green Matt Gonzalez almost won the election for mayor of San Francisco, not by playing inside/outside with the Democrats, but by running forcefully against both major parties. The fact that Gonzalez came so close to winning gives me confidence about our future and tells me the smart thing for us to do is to stand on our own two feet and let the Democrats take care of themselves.

We Greens need to have a lot more discussion about long-term strategy. The better we know our own minds, the better we will be prepared to persuade people to join us. New Greens will have much more confidence in us and in themselves if they have a sense of long-term mission, if they feel they can ride out short-term crises by having a prize to keep their eyes on, and if they see the more experienced Greens sticking to their guns and refusing to retreat in the face of intimidation from either of the major parties.

Can the inside/outside Greens and the independence Greens co-exist? Yes, for a year or two, perhaps. But not longer than that. The merciless regularity of the election cycle will eventually force us to take one of two roads--the one less traveled by or the path of least resistance. The latter leads back to serfdom within the Democratic Party and probably in short order. The harder road promises a long march with no end of difficulties, but it leads to freedom and self-respect. How can we possibly fail to choose the right road?

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