Toward having leftist electoral energy flow into the Green Party
First we have to emerge from the margins.
It would help if movement luminaries who run for us on occasion would commit long-range to building the party. But I don’t blame them when they don’t. Third party politics in this country is so terribly hard. Being at the margins, in the shadows, is frustrating and can seem thankless. And we’re always subjected to commentary from outsiders: “The Green Party has all this potential, but they don’t seem to be getting anywhere.” “They must be dysfunctional.” “They’re just fighting all the time.” “The internal culture is impaired.” (God forbid they should commit to coming in and helping us realize “all that potential.” Easy to criticize from the outside.)
The notable thing that the Green Party has done is to endure under adversity. Our endurance gives us a certain gravitas within the challenging world of US alternative party politics. I’m confident it will at some point enable, for us, the kind of dynamic that the Left saw in the wake of the Bernie 2016 campaign. Thousands of Bernie campaign activists wanted to keep the momentum going. Some followed Bernie’s lead in trying to work within the Democratic Party. But many had higher aspirations than that dreary prospect. They could have made Our Revolution into a major progressive force. They could have mostly gone into the Socialist Party or Socialist Alternative. They could have flooded into the Green Party (I was hoping). But the primary channel for their continued activism (outside of the Democratic Party) turned out to be DSA. The membership of that organization went from less than 10,000 in 1995 to over 90,000 in 1999.
If we endure we will at some point become the channel for social change activists. It takes a “perfect storm” kind of situation … because you never can know at any time where the energy will flow to. But one could (and should) imagine a situation where a Cornel West campaign makes the kind of splash that Bernie 2016 did and then “the Green alterative” is in the air for leftists to consider. We could become the generally recognized vehicle for running left-of-Dem alternative/independent campaigns. Our membership numbers could soar.
I believe that will happen at some point. It will then be appreciated how important it has been for us to endure decade after decade. Consider how many other alternative party initiatives have failed over the last forty years:
. Citizens Party (1980s, Barry Commoner)
. Labor Party (1990s, Tony Mazzocchi)
. New Party (1992–1998, Joel Rogers)
. 21st Century Party (1991–1997, Gloria Steinem et. al.)
. Rainbow Coalition’s new-party faction “Campaign for a New Tomorrow” (Ron Daniels, 1989–1997)
. Natural Law Party (1992–2012)
. Reform Party (Ross Perot then Pat Buchanan, 1995–2008)
. Populist Party (in some states 2004–2010)
. Progressive Party (Naderists, in some states 2004–2012)
. Justice Party (2012–2020, Rocky Anderson’s initiative)
. Movement for a Peoples Party (Nick Brana, launched 2018, not getting anywhere)
. United Populist Assembly (split-off from People’s Party, launched 2021, not getting anywhere)
. Forward Party (Andrew Yang/Christie Whitman, launched 2020, not getting anywhere)
In order to counter the constant refrain about our “dysfunction,” we should point to the challenges re: third party persistence and our ability to keep going. We’ve been able to endure because our ideology is distinctive and the resonance for it is significant. At some point it will be a major force … because if human society itself is to endure, it must go Green.
