The Condition of Third-Party, Oppositional Culture in America
August 12, 2006 4:51 pmby Russell Cole
What ever happened to the Green Party? Remember, the Green Party; the People’s Party; the Party with an egalitarian structure that practiced grass-roots politics and social democracy when deliberating over its own policies and affairs?
The Green Party of old no longer exists in any substantive form; only in a projection of text displayed as a representation of the Green Party’s internal organizational practices. The Party has installed a hierarchical structure and has developed a culture of suspicion and ideological dogma that is tantamount to a cultural condition that exists under a totalitarian state such as fascism.
The Green Party still attempts to project an image of itself which reinforces the prejudices developed from impressions of the organization as it first emerged as the premier third party movement in American politics. However, the rhetoric consists of propositions that describe states-of-affairs that are absent of any reference to the external facts comprising the Party’s practices.
I speak as a former insider, and I can state with absolute conviction that The Green Party is dominated by a clique of cronies who have successfully consolidated power within the party structure, and quite actively preserve their power through the silencing of dissent and the praxis of exclusionary politics. They go so far as to banish members under contrived charges of impropriety in order to maintain the cohesion of an organization that is void of deliberative participatory democracy. There is no democracy left in the Green Party. There is perhaps a form of republicanism, but one can enjoy this mitigated, marginal form of political participation in the Democratic Party. So, I ask: What is the need for the Green Party, other than to act as the spoiler party to the Democrats? The Green Party promises no democratic reform; no political decentralization that would empower the individuals emotionally attached to one another in local communities; therefore, The Green Party is an entity that is a hindrance to oppositional politics in America, and certainly not a guiding light in the struggle to democratize a society that has slipped into a state of Empire. ‘Green’ is no longer a signifier of populist reform; it is a symptom of pathology. The Green Party has been infected by the corrupting elements of petty minded people who aspire to the advancement of their own provincial interests at the expense of a movement that once promised to be the People’s emerging voice in American politics.
I could list names, but to publicly embarrass people would contrary to the most pragmatic solution to the problem at hand. At this point in time, attempting to salvage the Green Party is a waste of activist resources. The Party is starting to implode, due to the tyrannical imposition of the will of a faction that believes it needs to take control of the organization in order to impose structure and coordination to the activities of the minions under its control. California Greens are nearly in revolt. They are by far the largest pocket of Greens in the nation, and their disassociation from the Party would render the Green US a mere vestige of what it once was. The national organization would be politically impotent.
Let the Green Party die of this infection, and let something new originate from the organic processes associated with grass-roots activism. It is time for a new voice to be heard from the wilderness, and the most viable organization to assume this role is the Populist Party of America; a party that has yet to succumb to the dynamics of institutionalization, which leads to stasis, rendering the entity inert. The Populist Party of America is poised to take hold of the reigns of the American third-party, oppositional culture, and the time is coming near to a transition that will be abrupt and definitive. Those who still value direct, deliberative democracy; grass-roots politics; decentralization of governmental power; and social and economic reform; need to find a new home within Populist America, because it is now the lone voice crying out from the wilderness - the new dynamic of oppositional politics in American culture.
If you enjoyed this post,
Subscribe to the Free Midwest Populist Party Newsletter
Please consider a donation of $1 or more
to help keep this website active.
Spread the Word:
2 Responses to “The Condition of Third-Party, Oppositional Culture in America”
As a Peace and Freedom Party and Reform Party member in California my two biggest problems with the Green movement in the 21st Century have been the failure to nominate Ralph Nader for President in 2004 and the failure to do any thing with military veterand. No only are vets a sympathic group whom vote ‘early and often’ and are our natural anti Iraq Occupation allies.
In the 20th Century I was very disappointed when the Green movement did not pick up Don Lake’s idea for an alternative energy orientated up dated Peace Symbol. Instead of the Viet Nam era bomber profile, a wind mill electricity generator in the standard ‘up side down cross’ out line would convey the modern realities of global relations.
263 Eucalyptus Court, Chula Vista, Collie Fornia 91910-3030
Citizens For A Better Veterans Home[s], founded in 1998.
www.calvets.blogspot.com, jcoffey9991911@yahoo.com
Thanks for your remark, which I just happened to stumble upon. Your points are well taken, and when you speak of the disconnect between the Greens and the population whom it should represent, when mentioning the failure of the Greens to advocate any support for veterans, hits the mark right on the head. The Greens are an ideology that is too far distant from the toils and pains of the American populace. In short, they are ideologues, who do not listen to the people, but, instead, dream of imposing their ill conceived platform - which is so rittled with esoteric policies that have never been tested - that the pleas of the populace go into one ear and out the other.
Again, thankyou for your insightful remarks.
Care to comment?