Greens to Run Hard Against Bush in 2004.

Running against George Bush's war, Greens will be the choice for peace and grassroots democracy.

by Kevin McKeown

The Green Party will run a strong and strategic campaign for President in 2004, and make no mistake: we will be running against George W. Bush. On the final day of mid-July's Green Party of the United States meeting in Washington, D.C., the Green Party of the United States endorsed a call for Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings.

The impeachment resolution cites Bush's "pattern of making false statements to Congress, the American people and the world to win support for actions by the American government and military forces" in violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Charter of the United Nations and other international laws. "The problem isn¹t sixteen erroneous words in the President's January 28th State of the Union address, but dozens of false statements on dozens of issues," says my fellow national Green Party delegate Elizabeth Shanklin of New York City.

While opposing the war and the President, the Green Party fully supports our troops, voting for a "Home for the Holidays" campaign to bring our U.S. military personnel in Iraq and other active combat areas out of harm's way and back to their loved ones by December. George W. Bush's policy of invading other countries, according to the adopted national Green Party resolution, "is hostile to the democratic traditions of the American Revolution, and must be actively resisted by all patriotic Americans."

Running against George Bush, the Green Party commits itself to a pro-peace agenda, becoming the voice of opposition many had once hoped to hear from Democrats.

The shocking bipartisan silence as Bush invaded Iraq under apparently false pretenses gives the Green Party a clear mandate for a strong 2004 Presidential bid. "This meeting in Washington was a crossroads," says national Green Party co-chair Ben Manski of Wisconsin, where next summer's nominating convention will be held in Milwaukee. "We chose the path of growth and establishing ourselves as the true opposition party."

Three Green presidential hopefuls addressed the delegates from around the nation during the meeting in Washington, and messages were read from other possible candidates including Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. Some states may choose to run "favorite son or daughter" candidates, moving the campaign forward while maintaining flexibility going into the 2004 convention.

The national Green Party also adopted an African-American outreach proposal targeting historically black colleges and universities. "The support Ralph Nader gained from some well-known African-American figures, including Randall Robinson, Danny Glover and Chuck D was vital to Mr. Nader's campaign in 2000 and to the Green Party in general," says Green Party Black Caucus co-chair George Martin. A strong Green presidential race against George W. Bush and his war will help other progressive candidates sensitive to the empowerment of minorities.

Greens remain committed to the need for an immediate regime change in Washington. Ralph Nader has said publicly that should the Democrats nominate a true progressive like Dennis Kucinich, the need for a strong Green campaign would be reduced.

In California, where a recall of a Democratic governor looms, Green gubernatorial possibility Peter Camejo has announced a joint event with Kucinich August 22nd at the Mexican border, to highlight the issues faced by immigrants and immigrant workers. Greens will work across party lines toward progressive solutions.

Since 2000, though, there has been no response from Democrats to our Green Party call for instant runoff voting, or IRV, which would let voters simply rank their choices. IRV would eliminate the so-called "spoiler" effect some argue should keep Greens from running. In San Francisco, CA, where voters chose IRV for their next election, it is Democrats who are actively trying to stop IRV implementation.

The night our Green Party of the United States meeting adjourned, I strolled the National Mall from the Washington Monument past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial, in a muggy midnight meditation punctuated by fireflies. What message do I bring home to my friends and neighbors, I wondered, to excite and encourage them about the coming campaign for the future of our country?

The Green Party will run in 2004. We will run against George W. Bush and his war. We will run for both immediate and long-term political change in Washington and at every level of government. Our nation needs an effective progressive voice against war and in opposition to increasingly conservative and corporate influence, and that voice is the Green Party.

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Kevin McKeown is Mayor Pro Tem of Santa Monica, CA, and a member of the Green National Committee.

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