Why Alternative Parties Matter

I attended the People's Weekly World picnic on August 13. The annual event brings together members of the Washington State Communist party and people sympathetic to its causes. This is the third such picnic I've attended, and one thing I've noticed is that the average age of those attending is over 70. Other than the obvious observation that the Communist Party is in desperate need of some new blood, I've also admired the fact that these people have stuck it out when being a member of an alternative party like the Communists could end up getting you killed. These people fought for the right to unionize, the end of discrimination, access to health care for all Americans, and many other ideas now being taken up by new alternative parties like the Green Party. Maybe their persistence and the persistence of other alternative political parties ultimately gets these ideas into the mainstream.