Greens on the Rebound

by Joel Hanson

It's been a short time since America's highly contested presidential election exposed the structural flaws in the electoral system and two-party monopoly, but popular publications like the New York Times and Time magazine are directing larger amounts of energy to discrediting the valuable message of the Green Party's progressive campaign. While it will take far more than a barrage of articles from the mainstream press to undermine the concerns of three million Green Party voters, ultimately, the negative and misleading exposure could hinder efforts to build a larger political consensus for the 2004 campaign and potentially divide the current party along artificial lines.

At the November 18 Green Party of Washington State convention in Olympia, party members addressed two strategies to build the progressive movement in the next four years: increasing voter participation via statewide and national electoral reform, and increasing third-party participation in local elections. However, the Green Party faces a more difficult task before it can implement its strategy. How can we disrupt the widespread media-induced indifference and powerlessness, and convince large sectors of the population that there are problems worth fighting for and that their participation is vital to that process? The catalyst for a widespread public political awakening is located in the election fraud in Florida, and illegal tactics used by Democratic and Republican parties to win a presidential victory. But we must devise a means of keeping public attention on the injustices of the electoral system and away from the media-sponsored scapegoating of the smaller parties who wish to overturn the injustices.

The first problem--electoral reform--is a Catch-22 situation. Increasing voter participation by leveling the political playing field via electoral reform--same day voter registration, uniform ballots, instant runoff voting, proportional representation, a ceiling on campaign contributions, easier ballot access for third-party candidates, free television coverage, a ban on political advertising--isn't possible without an initial coordinated public effort to pressure public officials to make the structural changes necessary to increase voter participation. The Green Party will face a potentially unachievable goal if it hopes to accomplish electoral reform on its own. The party must turn to other individuals and groups outraged by Florida fiasco--like the Democratic party, for example, whose once-strong populist voice still faintly echoes in the halls of the U.S. Congress--to generate and sustain a public protest necessary to garner mainstream media attention, to create consistent public pressure on incumbent Congressional leaders, and, finally, to force those elected officials to create electoral reform legislation.

Tackling the second task--increased third-party participation in local and statewide elections--would be greatly facilitated by easier access to the information necessary to run for public office. If the Green Party intends to increase its presence in state and local elections by running more candidates, a web page dedicated to listing all of the public offices available, county by county, state by state in the U.S. (along with each state's ballot access requirements and some basic information about setting a campaign in motion) would be extremely helpful. Moreover, the Greens need to create a network within the party specifically dedicated to providing campaign information and support for potential candidates.

While both goals are daunting, both are reachable. And now that the 2000 election is essentially over and it appears that George W. Bush will be our next president, let's take a moment to remind ourselves of our initial success while we continue to focus on the future. The Green Party now has a chapter in all 39 counties in Washington State, voters had more choices on their ballots, and Nader/LaDuke received three million votes in the November election. If the party continues to grow at this rate, it will make a noticeable impact in the 2008 and 2012 elections.