The Green Dilemma and Direct Democracy.

• Author: Johnson, Charles D.
• Position: Thinking Politically

In the last 50 years I have voted for three major party candidates for president: Kennedy, Carter, and Dukakis. Carter lost on his second try, and Dukakis on his first. My batting average--500. I voted in every election! And you know what? I now feel that the whole exercise has been essentially irrelevant. It's sort of like a game where we are allowed to watch, and to shout or cheer once in a while, but in which the important decisions are made behind the scenes, in the locker room or the board room, and if we really try to influence the play, we soon find that we are persona non grata.

We are ignored, or, if too loud or insistent, showered with tear gas or worse, and charged with disturbing the peace and fined or jailed.

I am not alone. Millions of loyal Americans are more than disillusioned with their national government. They are horrified or angered by many of its policies and actions, and desperate for change. But most feel helpless and hopeless. Their response is to stay away from the polls and to avoid thinking or talking about politics. Not a very useful response when our nation moves deeper into corporate statism and plutocracy and further from any semblance of democracy every day.

Enter the Green Party and Ralph Nader! The Greens backing of Ralph Nader for the presidency brought thousands of new activists into the Greens, on the local, state, and national levels. I was one of those people, a progressive and anti-war activist for many years who had somehow managed to remain unaware of the Greens and the ten key values. After one perusal of the green values and platform(s) (especially the GPUSA platform), I was hooked--out there collecting signatures to help get Nader and the Greens on the ballot in Massachusetts. We hoped for a national tally of at least 5% but came closer to 3%. But that was almost 3 million voters who came out--as Nader would put it--for "a politics of hope and joy!" It was an exciting and even wonderful time.

And then came the morning after. Bush and Gore were so close in Florida that they ended up in court, fighting it out to see who could manipulate the voting tallies, the courts and public opinion so as to win Florida's electoral votes, and the presidency. It was not pretty to watch. The many ways in which blacks, minorities and the poor are disenfranchised were laid bare, and they are ugly. In the end the five "conservative" justices of the Supreme Court gave the presidency to George W. Bush in perhaps the most flagrant...