This train of thought began with Briahna Joy Gray's observations (below) on the OH-11 special election about which I blogged earlier this week. The replies were full of Democratic loyalist trolling, which is typical for one of Briahna's Tweets. After all, she has actively campaigned to get Senator Not a Real Democrat (I-VT) nominated for the presidency. Normally I avoid wading into such an environment; however, the trolling included some abuse of the term "progressive" that I could not leave unanswered.
It chaps my whole nether region when I see centrist, incrementalist Democrats referred to as "progressive." It irks me even more deeply when that leads to McCarthyite tropes hurled at anyone to the left of Nancy Pelosi, as happened later in the thread. The question in my reply had a twofold purpose:
My reply made no reference to the Green Party itself. But of course my Twitter bio is quite candid regarding my partisan affiliation. So, relevant to nothing in particular, up came the "What Has the Green Party Ever Done?" line of argument. To that I replied (not shown below), "Far more than a single Tweet can encapsulate" and promised to put a complete answer on this site later. Well, more complete anyway, because I'm sure that my bulleted list below leaves out some important achievements.
I can forgive average US voters for not knowing about the Green Party because (a) civics education in this country's public schools either is nonexistent or sucks out loud, and (b) the corporate media outlets don't talk about "third parties" except as human interest stories. This is a big part of why the Greens in particular have been fighting an uphill battle for mere public awareness, never mind a seat in Congress, for more than 20 years now.
If the Green Party US website had a page detailing the accomplishments of Greens since becoming a political party, I would start with a link to that page. But I can't find such a page. Beyond the US, Greens have participated in governing coalitions, and even led them, in several European nations ranging in population from Iceland to Germany, and have about one-eighth of the seats in the European Parliament (73 out of 705). But let's narrow the focus to this country for now. At the same time, let's broaden the scope of who can "do" public policy. Just as democracy consists of far more than voting, one doesn't have to be elected to have an influence on the direction of the nation. It wasn't Richard M. Nixon who got the US out of Vietnam; it was millions of peace activists getting out in the streets, risking injury or violent death at the hands of police or National Guard.
Well, that's a start. The haters still won't be satisfied with this, but at least it's an answer. Comments are closed.
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Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
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