The following new values and goals for the Green Party provide a precise focus and a specific direction: 1. Perennial Philosophy or Transpersonal Psychology 2. Nonviolence and Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament 3. Radical Egalitarianism Worldwide 4. Integration of Deep Ecology and Social Ecology 5. Radical Decentralization of Public Schools 6. Bottom-Up Reorganization of the 50 State Governments 7. New Twenty-Eighth Amendment to Change Article V 8. Communitarianism or Intentional Communities 9. New National Constitution 10. Feminism and Gender Equality
The current Ten Key Values of the Green Party of the United States are 1. Grassroots Democracy 2. Social Justice And Equal Opportunity 3. Ecological Wisdom 4. Non-Violence 5. Decentralization 6 Community-Based Economics 7. Feminism And Gender Equality 8. Respect for Diversity 9. Personal And Global Responsibility 10. Future Focus And Sustainability
The U.S. Greens first national gathering was held in 1987. At that conference the New Age, Spiritual, Deep Ecology Greens (led by Charlene Spretnak) had a different mindset from the leftist and rational Social Ecology Greens (led by Murray Bookchin). The best of both of these philosophies can be integrated. The Green movement and the Green Party are values-based.
The Green Party of the United States is the second national Green organization that broke away from the first organization called The Greens/Green Party USA. The Greens/Green Party USA was the group that first created the Ten Key Values; the Green Party slightly modified the wording of the same values. Many original Greens did not want to form a political party, thinking that the movement would become compromised and corrupted by the American two-party system.
The term "perennial philosophy" was first popularized by Aldous Huxley, author of the book The Perennial Philosophy and the book Doors of Perception, which is about his use of mescaline. But one does not have to take mescaline; there are plant-based hallucinatory drugs--such as ayahuasca, peyote, magic mushrooms, and marijuana--that when taken with the right mental attitude in a therapeutic/protective social setting can lead one to experience psychological and spiritual growth, even a mystical state of oneness. Since these visionary herbs can make people peaceful and loving that has to be why our war-making, imperialistic government is so much opposed to them. Transpersonal psychology and mindfulness meditation can also lead one to experience non-dual awareness or higher states of consciousness without the use of visionary plants.
Icons of our society, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Einstein, were advocates of nonviolence and socialism too. Unilateral nuclear disarmament is advised because there will be no winners, everybody loses, if nuclear bombs are dropped because of the ecological and social consequences. Also, it would be worse to be morally responsible for dropping nuclear bombs than to be the victims of such bombs. If the United States government has 6,800 nuclear warheads, and it dismantles 3 per day, that would be 1,095 per year, and it would take more than 6 years to totally dismantle. However, as more nuclear-armed countries join this process, all nuclear weapons can be eliminated much faster. If the U.S. government can repent of all of its national sins and ask all the people of the world it has harmed for forgiveness, it can start a spiritual revival that leads to world peace.
The disparity between the rich and poor within countries and among countries could be reduced to a ratio of 3:1 for hourly wages between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. The self-actualization or development of every person in every country needs to be the goal. We should think "My country, the world!"
Radical decentralization of the public schools involves encouraging the residents and parents who live within an elementary school district, for example, to elect their own school board, who would develop an educational philosophy and school curriculum that reflects the collective values of the neighborhood, after the neighbors get to know one another for the first time. Each school district can become totally autonomous, using public funds. We do not have to live in a monoculture.
State governments can rewrite their state constitutions so that they are organized from the bottom-up, not the top-down: from the neighborhood block club to the voting precinct level to the township up to the city council or county up to the state level. Each level of legislative government could make not just legislative decisions, but it could also make executive and judicial-branch appointments. Elected legislators at each level would vote among themselves to send a legislator to the next level above it. This method is better than our current system in which many Americans vote a straight ticket for many officers from two parties for candidates whom they know nothing about.
Article V of our current constitution needs to be totally changed. Article V is one paragraph written in tortuous legalese that can give even legal scholars a headache. Article V makes it extremely difficult to amend our constitution. Moreover, though the Declaration of Independence says the people have a right to abolish their government, the framers of the U.S. Constitution, never conceiving that, did not specifically explain in Article V how to create a new constitution in a fully participatory, democratic, fair, and orderly way.
We can change Article V so that it is much easier to pass amendments. Also, a newly constructed Article V could allow 100 Constitutional Convention delegates from all the national political parties that garner one percent or higher of the national vote to meet together. The delegates could meet for 3 months to create a new document. If the new document is approved by the delegates with at least a 51-percent majority, it would then take a 51-percent majority referendum of the American people to ratify it.
In fact, every 4 years the American people could decide during a presidential election if they want a Constitutional Convention. If the majority of Americans say yes, then that could start a 24-month carefully orchestrated procedure and timeline that could make it happen if the new document is finally approved by the American people. This author has explained how this procedure and timeline can work at his website. To get a totally new Article V, we have to pass a new Twenty-Eighth Amendment that convinces people that the new Article V is much better than the old.
A new constitution could establish a unicameral national legislature, abolishing the U.S. Senate altogether since it is not based on population. Proportional Representation of the legislature and Ranked-Choice Voting could be implemented, and the Electoral College System for electing presidents could be abolished forever.
Article V states that no new amendment to the constitution made prior to 1808 shall interfere with the legal use of slavery when it makes a reference back to Article I, Section 9 of the constitution. Do we want a reference to the legality of slavery in the supreme document of the land?
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