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Steve,

While I certainly appreciate the more measured response than most other journalists (real or posers) are normally willing to accord us, I think you're misunderstanding a couple things about the USGP.

We did not create a new party and field our own presidential candidate to register a protest vote to the system. We did it because neither of the major parties represents our (or, in fact, the majority's) interests. So long as both Democrats and Republicans are under the shroud of corporate bribery, they will never represent the Average Joe.

However, the process is not as simple as just running a candidate. To be effective, and to hew as closely as possible to our ideals, the Green party must be a mass movement. We cannot represent the idea of political parties as societal elites that 'know better' than the remainder of the public. Political parties in Europe, for example, are far closer to our idea of the party as community organization, wherein members and leaders of the party are your neighbors, your colleagues, your friends. That party does not disappear between elections as the two majors do. Instead, that party stays active in the community and helps make change from a popular level, rather than solely at the ballot box.

That idea, of course, requires one of the issues that Nader continually harped upon in 2000: citizen participation. We must be able to re-activate the public interest of the public, and encourage all citizens to participate in their state which is ostensibly by, for, and of the people. In that respect, I can perhaps explain our reluctance for a hierarchical structure which can 'call the shots', as it were. There is no doubt that it is the harder road, but it is the better one.

And I would be more disposed to believe that 'anyone would do less damage moving forward' if I actually thought the Democrats were still prone to moving forward. Their behavior since the accession of the Bush Administration has been one of almost disgusting servility and obedience. Nancy Pelosi, House Minority leader, stated that America would no longer have to ask what the Democrats 'stood for', in distinction to the Republicans. She promptly followed that by voting for the President's invasion of Iraq and remarking repeatedly that she supported Bush's case for war 'no matter what the United Nations said.' This is the opposition party? Only half of the current Democratic candidates opposed the war, numbered among them is the pro-business, pro-NAFTA, anti-drug reform Howard Dean, and the until recently ardently anti-choice Dennis Kucinich.

People (perhaps not you) would decry this response as 'hoping for the perfect candidate'. We are not hoping for a perfect candidate; we're planning for a Green candidate. Greens are not Democrats. Our agenda and platform are significantly different. If people want a candidate that truly represents their concerns, they will vote Green. If they want a candidate who gives lip service to those concerns while savaging many sectors of society as effectively as Bush (thinking of Bill Clinton and Al Gore here: NAFTA, 1996 Welfare Reform Act, 1996 Telecommunications Act (the latter two passed in a campaign year where one would think they would have been seeking traditional Democratic votes, and not Republicans), the 1998 logging act, etc., etc.) then they will vote Democratic. And, if they desire a feudal warlord, they'll vote for the incumbent...

Change must begin somewhere. We are making that change now. I hope that you and many others like you will help us do it.

Sincerely,
Marc Reichardt,
Chair,
Green Party of Michigan

Those who are saying it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it -Chinese proverb
O Bailan Todos O No Baila Nadie- El Tupamaros.