[Pnp-wg] members? please respond

[Elizabeth Arnone]

Mark,
Good to hear from you.  I hear your concerns.
As our name implies we are the presidential nominating process working
group.  Our main purpose is to arrive at a fair and democratic process which
can be implemented across the country, for one person one vote, equal
representation, and to nominate and elect a worthy candidate for president.

We are at the beginning of this effort and attempting to identify and
quantify our constituents "by state" as best we can.

If you wish to join us in this endeavor, your suggestions and comments would
be greatly appreciated.

Liz Anone - NJ
Co-Facilitator


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Swaney" <mswaney@engr.uark.edu>
To: <Pnp-wg@gp-us.org>
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 10:15 AM
Subject: [Pnp-wg] members? please respond


> Greens,
>
>
>
> I am still concerned that what I am reading about concerning the counting
of
> "members for representation" seems to me to be coming from a mistaken idea
> of what a "political party" is.
>
>
>
> I am hoping to get some specific response to this post - it is possible
that
> my thoughts are so far from everyone else's that no one is responding.  If
> that is the case, please folks, enlighten me as to where I am deviating
from
> the Green norm here.
>
>
>
> Part of the problem, as I see it, is that we as progressives have not
tried
> to produce an actual political party to represent our views until
relatively
> recently.  Thus, folks in the Green Party - great people all - are easily
> confused (in my opinion) about what a political party actually is.
>
>
>
> We as progressives have a lot of experience organizing groups - usually
> single issue organizations - and so some of us are naturally thinking of
the
> Green Party in the same way as we would the "Committee to Abolish the
Death
> Penalty"  or  "Arkansas Citizens for Clean Water", etc.  In such
> organizations, membership is like it is in a club.  You are either "in" or
> "out".  And if you are "in" it is because you are actively *working* for
the
> group or have donated money or signed a membership form.
>
>
>
> A political party is different.  It is not a club, and membership defined
as
> it is in a club is not a relevant measure of the size or strength of *any*
> political party.  A political party is a different animal and trying to
deal
> with a lion as if it were a giraffe is not likely to be very effective.
>
>
>
> No Republican that I ever met "attends meetings" or "pays dues" or "signed
a
> membership form".
>
>
>
> We still consider them to be Republicans because they *vote* Republican.
A
> very tiny proportion of Republicans actually attend meetings, work on
> campaigns, etc.
>
>
>
> The way some of you want to focus on "membership" would, if extended to a
> time when we have *millions* of supporters, lead the Green Party into a
> situation where we would say something like "there's only a thousand
Greens
> in (state X), because that's how many filled out a membership form, paid
> dues, and attended at least two meetings."  Regardless of the fact that in
> state X a zillion people *voted* for Green candidates.
>
>
>
> I can promise you that we will *never* have such a definition of being
Green
> resulting in more than a tiny fraction of the Green strength in any state
> being counted.  Most people work for a living, have children to raise,
> problems to solve, etc, etc, and will *never* do the kind of things that
we
> do.
>
>
>
> Are they therefore chopped liver?
>
>
>
> We shouldn't count them as Green because they aren't political junkies
like
> us?  No other political party does this.
>
>
>
> I know that some Greens are fond of saying that we are political party of
a
> "different kind", but I want the Green Party to emulate the Democrats and
> Republicans in at least a couple of ways. 1 they elect candidates to
office
> that do indeed affect the policy of the United States and 2 they have
> *millions* of people who regularly *vote* for their candidates.
>
>
>
> If being a political party of a "different kind" means sacrificing the
> opportunity to *act effectively* due to a mistaken idea of what a
political
> party is, then I'm in the wrong spot, and I need to get busy organizing a
> political party that intends to act like what it says it is.
>
>
>
> Please, if you've read this far, think about what I am saying and respond
to
> my concerns.
>
>
>
> Mark Swaney
>
>
>
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