The Green Party and the Tea Party Make Nice In Texas?
Angry right wing tea party masses have arrested the nation's attention -- most especially if you are a journalist or a part of the Republican political establishment. On the other side, agitating from the left, there is far less to-do.
With the oil spill exposing the depth to which corporate influence penetrates our nation's political establishment -- Democrat and Republican -- and President Obama unwilling to severe his offshore drilling support, you would expect a huge angry grassroots progressive voice screaming to make itself heard. Sure, there have been protests and boycotts, but these have either been apolitical or have failed to truly capture our attention in the same way of the conservative hordes.
Gee, if there only were some sort of organized party for that.
Weirdly, that's kind of exactly what the Green Party is about. Formalized nationally in 2001 from a loose association of state organizations, the progressive fifth column was made notorious by Ralph Nader's string of failed presidential bids. Many accused Nader as playing a major role in George W. Bush's court-ordered win in 2000. The party is committed to ecology, social justice grassroots democracy, and community organizing without corporate donor support, according to its website.
The party does offer a third alternative -- or maybe a fourth if you count tea party candidates in Republican primaries. But is this a good thing for progressive environmental causes?
A fight this week over whether Green Party candidates could appear on the Texas ballot has exposed the underlying tensions here. The party submitted the required 92,000 signatures to win a spot -- but the Democrat Party doesn't exactly welcome their presence. This time, Democrats may have a good reason to oppose.
The Democrat Party alleges that an outside group, Take Initiative America, which contributed half a million dollars to the "grassroots" signature gathering effort, was secretly backed by corporate money. The money, they say, came from Texas Republicans trying to undermine Democrat candidate Bill White's bid to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry.
This is not a way-out there charge that conservatives would align with liberals where their interests worked together. A group called Citizens for a Sound Economy -- the precursor to Tea Party agitators FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity helped enlist signatures for Nader's failed 2004 bid in Oregon, according to The Washington Independent. “We saw it as an obvious opportunity to split the liberal base in a swing state,” Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of the group told ABC News.
In Texas last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Green Party could stay on the ballot, and this week Democrats announced they would drop a lawsuit over the matter. This was mostly to save face, since they were starting to look like the bad guys (they are still pursuing charges, however, over whether the Green Party took improper donations).
"We are happy that the Democratic Party has surrendered," Green Party attorney David Rogerstold told the Houston Chronicle.
Ralph Nader is watching all this on the sidelines as he joined a chorus of those lambasting President Obama's response to the oil spill, calling it "mealy-mouthed." He also has recently not ruled out another, sixth presidential bid in 2012, according to the Washington Post.
While Democrats could certainly use a shove in dealing with the oil spill more aggressively, a vibrant Green Party would certainly be a mixed blessing for the broader left side of the aisle-- as Republicans have no doubt found as they face-off against Tea Party candidates in their own primaries. Whether there in any shot in hell of a vibrant Green Party, however, I cannot venture to know. But if the oil spill doesn't demand this, I don't know what will.
Photo Credit: Nick Bygon
Jess Leber
is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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