[Iowa-dx] Capitalist warmongers win in New Hampshire

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:17:19 -0600

Whew! What a relief! After the US being at war, since 1991, I wouldn't 
know what to do with peace, or the even the slight hope for peace. It 
reminds me of some sayings I learned, our of a book:

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Truer words have never been spoken.

Daryl

dr_pac-man@mchsi.com wrote:
> McCain/Clinton have won for the corporate parties in New Hampshire.  Empire
> sleeps easier tonight with it's foot on the neck of humanity.
> 
> 
> ----------------------  Original Message:  ---------------------
> From:    "Hart, Holly J" <holly-hart@uiowa.edu>
> To:      "iowa-dx@gp-us.org" <iowa-dx@gp-us.org>
> Cc:      "iagp-johnsoncounty@yahoogroups.com" 
> <iagp-johnsoncounty@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Iowa-dx] FW: Press: Greens connect ecology with democracy
> Date:    Wed, 9 Jan 2008 03:42:02 +0000
> 
>>
>>
>> http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2008a/011108/011108zc.htm
>>
>> Earth & Spirit
>> This week's stories | Home Page
>> Issue Date:  January 11, 2008
>>
>> Greens connect ecology with democracy
>>
>> By RICH HEFFERN
>>
>> At their annual national gathering of the U.S. Green Party last summer
>> in Reading, Pa., party leader John Rensenbrink gave a speech in which he
>> outlined how the Greens were positioning themselves for the 2008
>> election and beyond.
>>
>> “We are going to vie for real political power in the United States in
>> order to achieve important goals for our neighborhoods, the country and
>> the planet. We are no longer entering the political arena just to force
>> the ‘real’ candidates to discuss substantive issues. We are not a club,
>> not a nongovernmental organization but a real political party that will
>> contest for power in these United States.”
>>
>> A more strenuous Green Party strategy will include a marketing campaign,
>> achievable political goals and serious fundraising. “The Republican
>> party is imploding. The Democratic party has lost its way,” Mr.
>> Rensenbrink concluded. “It’s up to a third party now to inspire the
>> hearts and minds of millions of Americans.”
>>
>> U.S. Greens have been working out alternative ways of doing politics for
>> 25 years while committed to values and goals like gender balance,
>> sustainable land use, nonviolence, community-based economics,
>> grass-roots democracy and more. They have been busy fleshing out and
>> realizing these values in the world and in the realm of politics. They
>> have consistently opposed the invasion of Iraq, advocated for campaign
>> finance reform and for a single-payer health insurance plan.
>>
>> There are presently 227 Green party members holding state and local
>> level political office around the country, 55 in California alone.
>> They’ve had their struggles and infighting but now seem to be emerging
>> as a force for change in America, capturing in particular the interest
>> and passion of the young. Campus Green parties have sprouted like weeds
>> in an organic garden. A Green Party candidate is expected to run for
>> president this year.
>>
>> The Green party platform is expressed in terms of 10 key values. These
>> in turn are usually phrased in questions not definitive statements.
>>
>> Under “ecological wisdom”: How can we live within the ecological and
>> resource limits of the planet? How can we build a better relationship
>> between cities and the countryside?
>>
>> Under “community-based economics”: How can we redesign our work
>> structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy? How
>> can we move beyond the narrow “job ethic” to new definitions of “work,”
>> “jobs” and “income” that reflect the changing economy? How can we
>> restrict the concentrated power of corporations without discouraging
>> superior efficiency or technological innovation?
>>
>> What other U.S. political party concerns itself with such a rich,
>> values-laden agenda?
>>
>> Environmental writer James Kunstler, speaking at the Land Institute in
>> Salina, Kan., last September, said: “So many Americans believe the only
>> thing wrong with America is George W. Bush, and that if only we could
>> wiggle out of ‘his’ war and his presidency, every day would be Christmas.”
>>
>> In reality, there’s a lot more wrong with how we live and how we think
>> about how we live than the mere presence of George Bush in the White House.
>>
>> Our dependence on foreign oil, for example, is not the real problem.
>> It’s the living arrangements and consumerism that depend on that oil,
>> and in that we’re all implicated. This failure to make connections
>> between how we all live and resulting public and foreign policies goes
>> down to the grass roots.
>>
>> Mr. Rensenbrink presented an example of the strategizing that has been
>> going on. A longstanding Green party goal is to find ways “to tame giant
>> corporations in the interest of small businesses,” that last phrase
>> added in order to avoid the protest mentality that identifies Greens as
>> over against something else and to stress a positive commitment to
>> community-based economics.
>>
>> “We need to get on with the life-fulfilling project of citizenship and
>> public life,” said Green writer Patrick Mazza, who spoke of the need to
>> “transform politics and America itself.”
>>
>> Short-term goals include winning ballot status for the Green party in
>> all states. In 2008, the Greens want to add at least 25 states to the 19
>> states where they are recognized as a political party and win a minimum
>> of 5 percent of the vote, which would qualify the party to receive
>> public funding in the 2012 election, while also focusing energy,
>> resources and enthusiasm on a reasonable number of winnable House seats
>> and two Senate seats in 2008. Another goal is to have 1,000 Green party
>> members holding elective office nationwide by 2010.
>>
>> Greens present an alternative vision for America that projects hope.
>> They are the most notable example of grass-roots environmental electoral
>> politics in our nation’s history, yet they are largely ignored or viewed
>> solely as presidential election “spoilers.”
>>
>> Ecology, which can be defined as intelligent caring for the whole,
>> “represents a tremendous breakthrough for viewing res publica [public
>> affairs] as a natural sphere,” said Mr. Mazza. The direct connection
>> between the traditions of democracy and ecological consciousness is a
>> force that can lend Green parties dramatic force and energy for a
>> transformation of politics.
>>
>> Rich Heffern is an NCR staff writer. His e-mail address is
>> rheffern@ncronline.org.
>>
>>
>> THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES A PICTURE OF JULIA WILLEBRAND
>>
>> with this caption
>>
>> Julia Willebrand, Green Party candidate for New York State comptroller,
>> speaking on the Upper West Side in New York City Oct. 27, 2006.
>>
>>
>>
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