Or, What about This?

  • Posted by smijer
  • December 13, 2006

Count me down as one of those people for whom the last 6 years has brought not only fear of Republicans, but fear of one party rule & fear of institutionalized political parties. I’ve squeaked before about needing a viable third party.

This post, and my subsequent reflections sparked an idea.

How would a revitalized, reformed & replatformed Green Party - stripped of its radicalest elements of socialism and infused with a touch of national security earnestness - how would that party look with Al Gore running at the top of its ticket?

That would be kind of a reversal from 2000, but hell - a lot has changed since then. The worst outcome is that he becomes a stalking horse for the Democrat, the Republicans win, but at least we have divided government. The best outcome is that he makes a compelling case with a platform that pulls in disgruntled voters from both sides, and Al Gore - who cares about the job and has the smarts to do it well - presides over a divided government and a new third party.

I can hear the howls of ‘treason’ from the Democrats now. And it would be an ugly departure - but this isn’t some kind of Liebermanesque plot. It’s not a matter of having fallen out of touch with his own party and desperation to hang on to power at any cost. It’s just a matter of doing the best thing for the country. So, I think I’d be for it.

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December 13th, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
dave
Posted on:
December 13, 2006 at 12:33 pm

Hmmm…interesting. I am not sure that the Green Party would still be the Green Party without their “radicalest elements of socialism and infused with a touch of national security earnestness.”

I also think that if you do that to the Green Party, you essentially become the progressive wing of the Democrat Party, don’t you think? How would it be that different?

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
smijer
Posted on:
December 13, 2006 at 12:55 pm

I see the Green Party as it stands now as being too extremist on some points, and too unfocused on other points to be viable - either politically, or in terms of providing leadership.

Yeah - they would certainly have a lot in common with the progressive wing of the democratic party - but if they peel away part of that progressive wing, the democratic party and the green party would look fairly different. As time and evolution continued, each would build platforms independently based on the values & ideologies of their respective constituents. The apparatus & the money will no longer intermingle, and the competition between the parties will provide more incentive for oversight and checks on power between the three parties. That’s the utopian version of it, anyway.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
RW
Posted on:
December 13, 2006 at 2:47 pm

Just wondering: what was Lieberman’s “plot”? And what about Gore puts him anywhere but in the mainstream of the Democratic party, especially to the point that it would make Gore bolt for another political party? He epitomizes the DNC, as evidenced by his being the party’s choice the last time he ran for office?

Then again, Lieberman was the choice for #2 back then, Ricky, so….

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
smijer
Posted on:
December 13, 2006 at 4:47 pm

He really isn’t that much “different” than the mainstream Dem party right now. He’s more liberal than the DNCers who support him. He’s willing to lead on the environment rather than just trying to score well on the interest group scorecards by voting the right way on this or that.

But all that’s not so important to me. Ideologies come and go, and often get bogged down by special interests and party politics. Put the progressives with a smart leader in their own party, and the differences will become more apparent.