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7/29/2003 12:14:00 PM | Brad Plumer Your friendly neighborhood Greens Janos Marton puts up yet another invective against the Green Party today in the D. Nothing particularly new or striking, I suppose, though this paragraph was interesting: The logic that the Greens should abandon the national stage and go local is just as preposterous. If a district is really liberal enough to elect a Green to any position of importance (and where could this happen outside of California or Madison?), then what could a Green in office accomplish that the same person could not accomplish as a Democrat? If you want to institute publicly financed elections, vote Democrat and get a liberal into office who will do it.I've heard the "go local" argument before, and I don't think it's at all preposterous. The logic I've heard is that the Greens should go after those districts that have been gerrymandered into Republican strongholds. That's right: they should run in conservative, not liberal districts. Democrats spend little, if any, on these areas, and have all but conceded these House races. Thus enter the Greens, who try to rally college students, activists, and other disenchanted voters, in an effort to upend the GOP. At best, the Greens win the race and wrestle Congress away from the Republicans. At worst, they raise awareness on liberal issues and get voters out to the polls. Now Janos might say all this is silly. If these districts can't elect a Democratic representative, how in the hell could they ever vault a Green into office? But the fact remains that the Greens can appeal to a large number of voters disgusted or disillusioned by the Dems. That's a valuable skill, and a joint Green-Democrat strike could be a powerful liberal force. Unfortunately, for this to happen the Greens would have to hate Republicans more than they hate Democrats, and that doesn't seem at all true right now. perma link |
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