Montana Green Bulletin Special Edition October 11, 2018

Politics and possibility... 

How disenfranchisement destroys our freedoms and diversity.

by Paul Stephens

One of the best things about being in Montana is that we are so remote from the rest of the world, and the current madness which seems to have gripped the American psyche.   We don't have to "conform" to all the nonsense promulgated by ALEC and other corporate fascist "instruments of governance", yet that tendency seems almost to have originated in Montana - with the Copper Kings, Generals and Indian Wars, and every wave of corporate and Federal Military/Police-Prison takeovers since.  We've always been divided in our loyalties, until wars force us to conform to the Dominant Paradigm on pain of death or prison.  A lot of tragedy, as well as glory, happens here.

There was a world-wide cultural revolution in the 1960's, largely aimed at ending American military and economic hegemony over a world which wanted to be free of our "progress" and "democracy."  Now, we are nearly 40 years into the Counter-revolution, negating any positive changes from the 60's and 70's.   All the categories have been changed, except our "core values", foremost of which is American Exceptionalism.  We don't have to follow the same rules we impose upon others.  So everyone is at the mercy of whatever whims happen to strike the "guardians" of our National Sovereignty.   Do you wonder that people willingly become Anarchists to escape such tyranny?

I've been voting Green since 1996, or maybe even 1980, when I wrote in Barry Commoner, the "radical environmental" candidate.  Before that (and a couple of times since), I voted Libertarian.  Why?  Because neither Democrats nor Republicans understood the problems and potential solutions which they promised to solve through the Federal Government.  

Part of it might be that neither Libertarians nor Greens care much for the Federal Government.   Both movements reject Statism in principle.  Thus, they aren't really "parties" like the "majors" - which are themselves little more than corporate crime syndicates and arms of the police-prison-corporate-military-health care/education Complex (State).  All they really want to do is to hold on to the illegimtimate power they already wield.  Least of all do they want to talk about "reform" or "changing the system" to empower people and protect us from corporate predators and political totalitarians.  They ARE the political totalitarians.  

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Future Focus:  The Forgotten Green Value

Grass Roots Democracy, Feminism, Future Focus, and Non-violence

These were the original "4 Pillars" of the Greens/GPUSA, the internationally recognized Amercan Green Party.   In 2004, the present GPUS took over most of the state organizations,
and tried to become the FERC-recognized "Green Party." - In other words, one that remains within the existing federal voting laws and financing rules.  Since we don't accept PAC or other "bundled" corporate money, and have dismal media coverage as a consequence, we don't do so well.  We want to change the rules, not spend our precious resources as the Corporate Parties dictate.   

This explains a lot of the absurdities which have made the Green Party less than popular with traditional Democrats and many Leftists (especially of the Big State/Labor persuasion), and many of the Old Guard Greens/GPUSA people (and some state parties) remain largely unaffiliated and uninterested in national GPUS politics (represented by Jill Stein and David Cobb).   I was on the National Committee for several years, and outside of a few real communards and peace/environmental activists, there was little of interest happening there. 

Electoral politics has always been distasteful to some of us, and in the Green Parties, there is a perennial gap between the "Realos" (those engaging in Realpolitik infighting with other parties) and "Fundis" who are more interested in education, direct action, the "info-wars" and other non-governmental/non-authoritarian processes and solutions.  The Fundis are basically anarchists, while the Realos are some sort of state socialists and otherwise collectivist in their views, with "majority rule" democracy, but practiced on a local or bioregional basis.    

Most of the leadership of the GPUS (Realos) continues to act as though we're usurpers or some sort of "spoilers" of the two-party racket.  Ralph Nader, once perhaps the most respected "activist" and "reformer" of the late 20th Century, lost about 80% of his popularity and credibility by twice running as the Green Party Presidential Candidate - largely because of the corporate/MIC press and the Dem Machine, which destroys any candidate to the "left" of them, who might "steal their votes."   

This argument is so absurd on the face of it that we tend to simply ignore it.  Yet, 90% of those who consider themselves Democrats believe it, and continue to harrass and disenfranchise Green party activists and candidates at every opportunity - most reacently, by suing to remove the Green Party from the ballot in Montana on a "distribution of signatures" technicality which has already been ruled unconstitutional in other states.  

What particularly concerns the Greens and every advocate of free and fair elections is that a law firm active in the Hillary campaign was hired from out of state to do this.  So, this left local Democratic candidates afraid to denounce or protest this action by their party.  Needless to say, and so far as I know, none have done so, although I asked several prominent Democrats to do so.  Can anyone tell me why you are all basically complicit in one of the worse vote suppression efforts in recent history?  If 7000 Lesbians or Native Americans (many of whom would vote Green) had been disenfranchised, there would have been hell to pay... 

The GPUS has been successful in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Michigan mainly by mobililizing Black voters who have been taken for granted by the Dems forever.   The same could happen in Montana with other minorities.  In Washington, D.C., it's the Statehood Green Party, representing that large disenfranchised group.   Their local government is appointed by Congress, and they have no voting representatives in the Senate or Congress.  DC has almost as many people than Montana, and more, I think, than Wyoming, so you can understand their support for a party that stands up to the Biden-Baucus-Clinton Corporate State as well as the Dick Cheney Republicans of Wyoming.