Why I Changed My Voter Registration
by Norman Solomon
This morning I mailed a form changing my party registration from
"decline to state" to the Green Party. It's a tiny individual step in
response to a hugely important collective action--the party's decision at
its national convention to nominate David Cobb for president.
A majority of the delegates went for a candidate who relied on
grassroots organizing and respectful debate. Cobb won the nomination
after proving his capacity to engage in substantive dialogue with Green
Party activists and other progressives. Without that capacity, he
probably wouldn't have ended up taking his position in favor of a "safe
states" approach to this year's presidential race.
How thoroughly Cobb and his running mate Pat LaMarche will implement
such a strategy remains to be seen. Hopefully, history will record that
in 2004 the Green ticket boosted the party's strength among progressives
nationwide while making common cause with the wide array of movements
determined to prevent a victory for the Bush-Cheney gang on Election
Day.
As a practical matter, ending the George W. Bush presidency on November
2 will require sufficient votes for John Kerry in most of the 20 or so
swing states: Oregon and Washington; Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and
Colorado; Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Delaware; New Hampshire and Maine; West Virginia,
Arkansas and Louisiana; and, of course, Florida.
(Since I live in California, where Kerry is running 12 to 15 points
ahead of Bush, I'm safely voting for Cobb. But if I lived in one of the
20 closely fought swing states, I'd vote for Kerry.)
With the swing states too close for comfort, activists should be
emphatic that the Green Party's presidential campaign this year ought to
concentrate its efforts on "safe states"--where the Bush-Kerry race isn't
close.
The Green Party should not be at cross-purposes with the progressive
movements struggling to end the Bush presidency. People in those
movements will long remember, for good or ill, how the Green Party
conducts itself between now and the day that seals the fate of the Bush
White House.
One of the potential key benefits of Cobb's nomination is that he seems
genuinely interested in hearing--and being responsive to--grassroots
activists. This is a refreshing and vital departure for a Green Party
presidential nominee. So, more than ever, it's time for activists to
speak up.
If strategic thinking prevails, the possibility exists that the Green
Party in 2004 will strengthen itself from the bottom up while also
providing tangible solidarity in the national effort to defeat Bush. If
the Green Party proves equal to this momentous task, it could open up
new possibilities for the years and decades ahead.
Norman Solomon is co-author of Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't
Tell You.
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