How true stay Illinois Greens?
Adam Jaday writes Strength in '06 poses new challenge for Illinois Green Party in STLtoday.com. A nice example of success bringing a whole new set of headaches.
One pain will be how to stay pure Green (what ever that may be; Greens are going to have to tell us) given the need for new members.
Nick Cohen wrote a few days ago this column: Don't you know your left from your right? Cohen concluded this about the left,
It is not novel to say that socialism is dead. My argument is that its failure has brought a dark liberation to people who consider themselves to be on the liberal left. It has freed them to go along with any movement however far to the right it may be, as long as it is against the status quo in general and, specifically, America. I hate to repeat the overused quote that 'when a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything', but there is no escaping it. Because it is very hard to imagine a radical leftwing alternative, or even mildly radical alternative, intellectuals in particular are ready to excuse the movements of the far right as long as they are anti-Western.It's going to be interesting to see if Illinois Greens crash, or find growth attracting protectionists, isolationists, and libertarians they never realized they could get along with before. I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen. A shared disgruntlement with the status quo can build odd friendships.
No one's advocating nationalization of Walmart today. Socialism is dead. Greens are free to go lots ways now and I'm curious what they'll pick.
7 comments:
I think there are plenty of resources that explain perfectly where Greens stand. For example:
The Green Party is committed to Ten Key Values.
The Illinois Green Party has published a political platform.
The Green Party of the United States offers a national platform.
Greens have also made available a comprehensive issue comparison.
Heck, on the global level, Greens have even promoted a Global Green Charter.
Will those principles stick with all the new members they're going to need to make this work? That's going to be the interesting thing to watch.
Rich Whitney was said to be for conceal carry. I imagined that raised a few eyebrows. Yes?
This quote is just amazing:
"when a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything."
Kinda like believing that if I blow myself up I'll get to heaven with virgins. Or that when I eat a wafer, it's actually the blood. Or that my people are the choosen people. Or that Noah lived to be 900 years old. Or that being Gay is a disease that can be cured.
Exactly Levois, what does it mean for the Greens if all the new members those disgruntled with the status quo and share Whitney's gun views.
It's a wide open party at the moment and what it means to be left or right, conservative or liberal; a little up in the air.
Literally wide open in this sense from the STLtoday story,
Wanted: One candidate for the U.S. Senate, 19 for the U.S. House, 118 potential state representatives, dozens more wannabe state senators, hundreds of potential county officials.
And as many as 11,692 precinct committeemen, among other vacancies. Interested applicants should contact the Illinois Green Party.
The Illinois Green Party requires all party members to confirm that they are committed to the Ten Key Values upon joining. I suppose that someone could lie; but then again, Greens can also remove members. There is no requirement that members be committed to the party's platform--members are free to interpret the Ten Key Values in their own way. In a very real sense, this embodies the Key Values of Grassroots Democracy, Decentralization, and Respect for Diversity. In other words, Greens aren't proposing one great big, homogenous system but, rather, a diverse society.
Regarding Whitney's psoition on guns, that's exactly one position of one canidate, of one state Green Party, in one country--it tends to get overshadowed by the majority opinion of the Global Greens. Also, let's not forget that Greens use a unique internal consensus decision making process, which attempts to address the concerns of those with minority opinions, rather than simply voting in all cases. That's one of the unique things about Green Politics--we don't see the process as a zero-sum game.
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