I suggest that dissatisfied liberals and conservatives alike join me in hosting a series of Green Party parties, perhaps one a month between now and the elections. The purpose would be to change our voter registration from whatever it is to Green as a public expression of solidarity and repudiation of the present ruling coalition. These parties would have the virtue of organizing people around the most pressing issue facing all of us: the cataclysmic changes unfolding in our climate and, as a result, in our whole way of life.
Obviously, Green Party parties are only one possible vehicle for breaking down the artificial and self-defeating political barriers that have gotten us into this desperate fix. If enough of us switch, the Green Party could become a powerful organizing portal for re-activation of participatory democracy, but any common meeting place, or combination of places, will do. We’re going to have to withdraw our consent to the various cultural/religious/political proxies who are in the business of restricting our choices and start working things out amongst ourselves, face to face. We’re going to have to take matters into our own hands, all of us, no matter how far-fetched that sounds, fundamentalist Christian and lesbian, black and white, corrupt capitalist and corrupt union boss, lifelong Republican and lifelong Democrat.
Patricia Goldsmith is a member of Long Island Media Watch, a grassroots free media and democracy watchdog group. She can be reached at plgoldsmith@optonline.net.