Montgomery County, MD Green Party Blog

http://villagevoice.com/news/0605,sutton,71959,9.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Green_All_Views/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Green_All_Views/message/12175

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greenallianceus/

Dear Dave Lindorff,

In today’s Counterpunch (http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff01312006.html)
you quite rightly castigate the Democrats for caving in on the Alito
nomination, but I am afraid that you hold out vain hopes that a purge of
the party will fix things. As I recall, you urged a vote for Kerry in 2004,
even if one gags in the process.

I don’t think the problem with the Democrats can be fixed by cleaning
house. Now I can understand why some would be happy if Joseph Lieberman got
booted by Democratic voters in Connecticut. I can also understand why
others would want to work for Jonathan Tasini’s campaign in NY, who is
seeking to unseat Hillary Clinton. Or for Steve Greenfield, a long-time
Green Party member who has announced that he will challenge her in the
Democratic Party primary.

I also imagine that there will be lots of progressives who would gladly
volunteer for Cindy Sheehan’s campaign if she decides to run against Diane
Feinstein in the primaries.

However, the one thing that makes the Democratic Party viable as a
pro-imperialist, racist, corrupt and anti-environmental institution is
exactly the visibility of such left liberals. As long as there are people
like John Conyers or the late Ted Weiss to serve as window-dressing, there
will be a tendency for the Nation Magazine, the CP, Medea Benjamin, Norman

Solomon et al to hold out hope.

If anything, the conduct of the Democratic Party post-2004 confirms the
wisdom of Nader and Camejo in running as well as the folly of “lesser evil”
support in John Kerry. We were told that electing a Democrat would help
preserve the integrity of the Supreme Court but their behavior on Roberts
and Alito shows that their commitment to fairness is paper-thin.

Basically, the only way to look at the two party system is as a kind of
shell game. About ten years ago, NYC streets were dominated by 3-card monte
games which were a fad at the time. Hapless out-of-towners would part with
their money in the vain hope that they could spot the Queen of Spades. The
inside man dealt the cards, while the outside man conspires with the dealer
to cheat the mark. I would suggest that the Republican Party is the inside
man and the Democratic Party is the outside man. Eventually, these games
faded away as law enforcement cracked down. Unfortunately for progressives,
the cops are part of the shell game when it comes to electoral politics.

One might hope, however, that some of our more perceptive writers would
begin to warn passers by that the game is crooked. Including you.

Yours truly,

Louis Proyect

http://www.marxmail.org

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greenallianceus/message/4129

What Democrats should have learned is that they cannot evade the security debate. They must challenge the terms under which Rove and Bush would conduct it. Imagine, for example, directly taking on that line about Sept. 11. Does having a “post-9/11 worldview” mean allowing Bush to do absolutely anything he wants, any time he wants, without having to answer to the courts, Congress or the public? Most Americans — including a lot of libertarian-leaning Republicans — reject such an anti-constitutional view of presidential power. If Democrats aren’t willing to take on this issue, what’s the point of being an opposition party?[my emphasis]

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Indictment, Ethics Questions, Abramoff Case Are Obstacles

If his lawyers have advised DeLay not to talk about the case, he has ignored their counsel, giving interviews on television with the frequency of someone who has just won an election rather than one who has just received legal papers.

Click here for link.

“I think that the Democrats are unable to exploit issues like energy, taxes and Iraq because they have nothing to say,” said Weber, who remains an important GOP strategist. “The problem with the issue of corruption is the opposition party doesn’t have to have anything to say. All you’ve got to be is the other party, so it worries me.”

I’ve asked it before, and I’ll ask it again: Just how can the Greens take advantage of the situation?

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Democrats and liberals are ecstatic that President Bush has finally faced his moment of accountability. The travails of Hurricane Katrina followed a bad summer for the president and have called into question his leadership style, competence and intense partisanship.

But Democrats are less ecstatic about . . . Democrats. Over the past several weeks, it was impossible not to run into Bush critics who would shake their heads and complain: “Yes, but where are the Democrats? Who are our leaders? What do they have to say?”

This column begs the question: Just how can the Greens take advantage of this opportunity?

Click here for link.