Yes, but...

I would, except for the following reservations:

1. Any Green Party function I've ever attended or witnessed over the years has been populated almost exclusively by Caucasians with at least fifty years' experience as a human being. Perhaps I've just been unfortunate in having missed seeing the diversity in race and age that indeed exists on the Green Party rolls, but I'm betting that if you were to break down the Green Party membership into age and race percentages, you'd find it not at all reflective of the U.S. population as a whole. If there is little age and race diversity, why not? What is it about the Green message that fails to attract younger generations and people of color? Is it just that older generation Americans are those more likely to have finally accrued enough disgust with the current two-party system to have finally done something about it, and changed their registration to a third party, the Greens? What might the Green party do to attract a younger and more diverse segment of the population?

2. Additionally, the economic make-up of the Green Party membership, from the outside looking in, appears heavily weighted towards the upper-middle-class. Is this an illusion? Perhaps, again, my perceptions are in error. But if I am right, why is this the case?

3. My aforementioned contacts with Green Party representatives have generally left me with a bad taste in my mouth, primarily from the rather snobby, "we're better than everyone else, just look at our platform...aren't we just wonderful!" manner of conversation often adopted. I am a physician, well-accustomed to and enjoying of intellectual conversation, but my interactions with Green Party members in the past have left me feeling as if I were an unintelligent prole, not nearly as enlightened as they on matters of politics and the world. Certainly no way to grow a party, if indeed this is the usual manner of conversation.

Perhaps I've been jaded by an unfortunate sequence of interactions with Greens that have been truly unrepresentative of the Green Party philosophy. Perhaps.

I'd love to learn otherwise.

by Todd Huffman, M.D. (80 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 109 comments) on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 10:28:18 PM
 

A Wisconsin Green responds to doctortodd

There are a lot of people who have given up on, or never become interested in, electoral politics because they feel disenfranchised by, or disinterested in, "the two party system". An unfortunate number of these are not very much aware of the alternative presented by the Green Party.

doctortodd lists some of the more common relatively valid seeming concerns that I often hear from those considering the Green Party. I would like to address these concerns in order, but first must put forth a few caveats.

Green politics in general, and the party specifically, are organized on a grass roots, bottom up, basis; this means that local variation dominates our local organizations. I can only speak from my experience with Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, membership and some of the national level "leadership".

The Green Party cannot be defined by an ideology, traditional or otherwise. We are defined by adherence to the ten principles of the broader green movement, and consensus decision-making.

It is a party of, for, and by the people. If you agree with the ten principles, founded in the international green movement of the 70's and 80's, desire to work to elect people other than Democrats and Republicans, and have the patience to work through consensus based internal politics towards a better electoral politics, then this is already your party. If your local Green Party varies greatly from common sense, our ten principals, or state and federal platforms, it may be that it is your job to help create a better confluence of form and intent.

Many of us in the party have long ago developed thick skins emotionally when it comes to politics, and expect to disagree on something or another with our fellows, we sometimes forget how daunting it can be to be told in a public forum that others think you are wrong. As individuals we also forget, or maybe haven't yet learned, that we ourselves are prone to not always being right. I wish I could say that it is the younger ones among us that most often suffer from this, but it is the older American who is more likely to think in fixed black and white absolutes, and thus end up frustrated working within a ideology free consensus based decision making framework. Fortunately this is often balanced by the tendency for age to engender patience.

Also, much of the pseudo-scientific/academic language that both you and i seem to prefer also contributes to these perceptions of yours, i use it here because i prefer the clarity of it, and seek to be consistent with, and persuasive to, the commenter i am commenting on.

1. We're all old white guys?
Right, we don't yet match the demographics of those we seek to represent. No party I know of ever has.

Why?
There are many reasons for this, the perception, and realities, of disenfranchisement and working hard are significant ones. A good portion of the disenfranchisement of US citizens’ stems from the fact that we are the hardest working nation, and the common misperception that we have no choice but to allow corporate media and politicians to frame debate. Historically under-represented "minorities" (nonwhites, non-males, youth, and non-heteros), are more prone to lack of control over leisure time and the many factors leading to real, or perceived, disenfranchisement. Political organization of the disenfranchised is the strongest fix for this problem. Organizing around the identity politics of each separate group is an important solution to this problem, but it ultimately will fail to generate an electoral majority. As a sole political solution this fails, and only furthers the divide and conquer agenda.

Youth in particular are hard to organize because by the time you've learned to organize well you are no longer a youth, and the method has moved on without you. Still, i feel sorry for you if you are in a community where the active Green Party membership is almost exclusively white males over 50. As this is more likely to reflect upon your community than the party, I would advise you to move, but my guess is that the movement could use you more there than elsewhere.

What can we do about it?
The Green Party is the only party where historically under-represented peoples have an extra vote through identity politics caucuses. At gp.org you will find a link to the caucuses of women, youth, rainbows, LGBTs, and blacks. There is a process by which those who feel they are part of a historically under-represented group may seek to form such a caucus that obtains dedicated seats at the table in national, state, and other committees. This allows not only two, or more, votes for members of these groups, but also allows one to avoid working with older straight males, if one is uncomfortable doing so, while still having significant impact on the party and identity politics within it.

Yes, we are weighted towards older straight white males; but we are all agreed that we should go to great lengths to address that. We are the only party where straight white males insist on getting less individual representation than others. That should count for something. It varies by local, sometimes youth are well represented, and sometimes nonwhites are well repped, often women hold many of the important posts. We have a long way to go to get our message out to everyone, but there are many avenues to getting involved with the Green Party, and no one is barred, or given a free pass, because of their age, race, sexuality, or any creed. We are equally open to former members of any party or ideology from Republican to Black Panthers.

Might age contribute to disgust with the system?
Probably, but youth tends to contribute to a sense of better possibilities. It is probably more important that age tends to persuade one to find an alternate party working within the law of US electoral politics. Nonetheless i feel we are better distributed by age than you think.

2. Heavily weighted towards the upper middle class?
I wish!! One of the reasons older upper middle class individuals are found disproportionately representing others within the party, in "leadership" positions, is that most locals don't have enough money to pay our expenses when traveling to committee meetings and conventions; a major reason for this is that we depend on our members for funding, as we won't take corporate contributions. This also applies to our candidates for the same reason. The problem is that most of us are lower middle working classes and working poor, and most of our work within the party is self-funded. There is probably no current multi-state party that has a smaller portion of upper middle class leadership and contributors. Everything about becoming, and staying, a member of the upper classes militates against concern with our principles and goals, and patience for our methods and structure. If you help out, join, or contribute, you make it a little more possible that a given potential low-income candidate will feel enabled to run.

3. Usual manner of conversation - we're better than you?
If this is your experience, then i exhort you to join and help amend this practice. I often feel that this tendency for those who think they are working hard for the right thing, to assume they already personally have the right stuff, is a major force debilitating every social group organized around improving the lot of humanity and/or life on Earth. Often this problem is more in the eye of the beholder than real, but it is a very real problem nonetheless.

Green Party members do not often discuss ideology at meetings, consensus on decisions takes too long to hold discussions, in meetings, about why actions are right or wrong, and there are way too many things that we can all agree need doing regardless of one's personal motives. We have no litmus test besides our 10 key values. Many of us smoke, and in my experience most of us eat meat at least occasionally. Thanks to these things alone many of us are well aware that we do not live perfect lives. This perception of yours is a valid concern for the party, and it's membership, but you should not let it be a barrier to your political representation. There are many social and religious groups where being better than everyone else seems to be the purpose of organization. To outsiders, this would include most organization for actual betterment.

The purpose of the Green Party is to help the people represent themselves in government, there is no room for big egos, but we all seem to have one whether we try to or not. If you find that Green Party members actually take this attitude with you, i implore you to join them and teach them otherwise. As most people who are active trying to improve the world think that they are doing the right thing, this can really try your patience.

Once the original Islamicists decided that some Muslims were less righteous Muslims than others, than it was inevitable that they would start shooting each other. The battle within the leadership over who was most righteous killed the old guard off, and destroyed the movement; until the Bush II admin gave them a common enemy. Personal righteousness is no way to organize politics, and if we ever manage to remove this unifying force, i predict such Islamicists will form another circular firing squad and eliminate themselves once again.

Often you will find such people within the Green Party; but most of us welcome all who want to work towards our common goals. If you have patience with such people you will often find that they either mend their ways or kick themselves out of the party, blaming other members’ tendency to be "better than you" type snobs. These former members, who wouldn't learn to acknowledge the value of other points of view, are the most common source of this complaint of personal, or ideological, “purity” on the part of "the" Green Party.

The Green Party seeks the broadest possible consensus; it is thus most likely your party as much as anyone else's. If you don't spend all your time obsessing over other parties, or evangelizing for them, then it is your duty to inform such people that the Green Party is your party too, whether you join them or not. Of course, they'll be much more likely to hear it if you join in and prove yourself a more effective and more tolerant green than they are.

In any endeavor you pursue, i recommend that you concern yourself less with what your compatriots feel about you than what it is you can agree to accomplish together.

GP 10 key values:
Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice
Ecological Wisdom
Non-violence
Decentralization
Community-based Economics
Feminism
Diversity
Responsibility
Future Focus

by monte letourneau (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Saturday, July 21, 2007 at 10:35:49 PM