Green Party of Michigan
http://www.migreens.org\
June 21, 2005
For More Information Contact:
----------------------------
Douglas Campbell, Vice Chair/Green Party of Michigan
e-mail: naderladuke2000detroit@yahoo.com
John La Pietra, Elections Coordinator/GPMI
e-mail: jalp@internet1.net
Disillusioned Democrats -- and Republicans -- Welcome to Join Party of
Ten Key Values, Meeting Saturday in Dearborn
"Every Day Is Moving Day" for Anyone Who
Supports Values
Popular blogger and long-time Democrat Jim
Leftwich, writing in his Internet blog JIMWICh, has declared June
21st, 2005 "Moving Day".
Leftwich is calling for his fellow disillusioned
Democrats to "on one day and en masse, move to a party that has
the set of values and principles that the Democrat party not only used
to stand for, but used to successfully fight for, both on the
legislative floor AND in the hearts and minds of the American
people."
That party, of course, is the Green Party.
In 1979, Democratic U.S. representative Morris
Udall said, "Political parties ought to stand for something -- or
else they ought to go out of business." Michigan Greens couldn't
agree more.
Leftwich concludes that "the Democrat party
is a failed and ruined institution . . . a party that can only manage,
at its best, to offer up a weak and reactionary protest after
the fact."
Never has this been more evident than on May 10th,
when every Democrat in the United States Senate voted for an $82
billion appropriation (HR1268) largely to extend and escalate the Bush
administration's military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not one Senate Democrat voted, even symbolically,
against the Bush agenda. Every one of them -- including Michigan's US
Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, 2004 presidential candidate
John Kerry, 2008 presidential candidate-apparent Hillary Rodham
Clinton, and several other likely 2008 Democratic presidential
candidates -- affirmatively supported the Bush agenda.
"Something is fundamentally, and fatally,
wrong with the Democrat party," writes Leftwich.
This disillusionment, of course, is not limited to
Democrats.
Douglas Campbell, party vice-chair and the Greens'
first candidate for governor in 2002, suggests July 4th --
Independence Day -- as Moving Day for Republicans fed up with a party
which was once symbolized by Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, but
today pursues policies of:
* budget-busting spending and deficits;
* injecting itself into the internal matters of other nations;
* injecting itself into your bedroom and hospital room;
* increasingly placing American citizens under government
surveillance;
* conducting foreign wars without the Constitutional authority of
Congress;
and
* randomly incarcerating people . . .
Brooklyn-born American citizen Jose Padilla
remains in jail since May 8, 2002 without charges, without a trial,
and without access to counsel -- see www.cato.org/dailys/08-21-03.html
Disillusioned Republicans are as welcome as
Democrats to look at the Ten Key Values of the Green Party, and join
the Greens if they agree, notes GPMI elections co-ordinator John
Anthony La Pietra.
Campbell points out that Republicans still
advocating an American public policy based strictly on individual
liberty, limited government, free markets and peaceful international
relations will also find the Libertarian Party represents their agenda
much more faithfully than the current incarnation of the GOP.
And the Constitution/U.S. Taxpayers' Party is
there for anyone disillusioned with the Republican Party for not being
reactionary enough, Campbell continues.
He invites all comers: "We look forward to
seeing new Greens, whatever their former allegiances, at our statewide
membership meeting in Dearborn June 25th -- which is open to the
public."
Details of that meeting are available at:
http://migreens.org/convention/smm0506.htm
Party archivist Peter Schermerhorn suggests that
the Moving Day movement can continue. Disillusioned Democrats can join
the Green neighborhood on "natural" days such as the
equinoxes and solstices, Arbor Day, and Earth Day -- while reluctant
Republicans can move on more patriotic holidays like Flag Day or
Veterans' Day.
Or, Schermerhorn continues, people can pick their
own day to decide to support a party that supports their values:
Constitution Day, Hiroshima Day, Presidents' Day, Martin Luther King's
birthday, Labor Day -- whenever.
La Pietra adds that, since the Green Party is a
world-wide movement, people could choose either of two Labor Days: the
first-Monday-in-September date celebrated in the U.S. or the May 1
date the rest of the world celebrates.
"Of course, as far as Greens are
concerned," he says, "every day is Moving Day -- or at least
it can be.
"And everyone can join us on November 7, 2006
-- the next general election day -- in voting for Green values . . .
which our Presidential candidate David Cobb so rightly described last
year as the better instincts of our country."
*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
The text of Jim Leftwich's original comment
proposing June 21 as "Moving Day" may be found below -- and
on his "JIMWICh" blog site at:
http://www.anigami.com/jimwich/md/md.html
To find links to other parties in Michigan -- five
of the six parties currently qualified for the state ballot in 2006,
and four more that aren't -- visit the Michigan page of the Politics1
Web site:
http://www.politics1.com/mi.htm
For information about the national Green Party of
the United States, visit the GPUS Web site:
http://www.gp.org/
For more information about the Green Party of
Michigan -- including its definitions of the Ten Key Values and the
rest of its platform, or the contact information of a Green Party
local or county coordinator near you -- please visit the GPMI Web
site:
http://www.migreens.org
________________________
http://www.anigami.com/jimwich/md/md.html
Moving Day -- Green Party Resources and Comment
Board
I have reached a turning point.
I propose that we declare this year's Summer
Solstice,
Tuesday June 21, 2005, to be Moving Day. Whereupon
longtime Democrats such as myself, on one day and en
masse, move to a party that has the set of values and
principles that the Democrat party not only used to
stand for, but used to successfully fight for, both
on the legislative floor AND in the hearts and minds
of the American people.
It is time that we joined the Green party, bringing
to it the sheer numbers of people it now lacks to
wield significant political power, and begin the
long journey of creating a world that will be better
and sustainable for generations hence.
I am the product of generations of proud and believing
Democrats. I have never been a hardcore political
activist, nor a marching protestor against things my
government has done that I vehemently disagreed with.
I have believed in the traditional values of the
Democrat party that my father and his father believed
in. I have believed in the progressive path. The
defense of the common man and small businessperson
upon which this country was built and has endured
for over two centuries. I have fought against
attempts to split our party, and have held fast
through the last two national election cycles,
hoping against hope that true leadership and a
compelling and simply-stated set of principles
would emerge.
I cannot begin to describe the deep sadness I have
when I think of what the Democrat party has lost[,]
but have now, as a single individual, come to the
conclusion that the Democrat party is a failed
and ruined institution. It i[s] truly, and
fundamentally[,] time to move on.
I am by no means the first person to arrive at
this point, but I believe I am exemplary of a
particular type of Democrat. A dyed-in-the-wool
Democrat that until now has vowed to hang on for
as long as it takes. I now feel that that strategy
is doomed. And our country with it, if a major and
significant shift does not occur, and occur very
quickly. In the present political environment,
time is definitely not on our side if we continue
on our current path.
By means of a shrewd forty-year-long strategy, the
Republican party has slowly and inexorably captured
the ideological playing field and rigged the semantic
rulebook. Low income labor workers with modest
incomes and families with no medical insurance now
proudly vote Republican, convinced that the superficial
Republican talk of family values is somehow more
American than those of the Democrats.
Our country is now being led down a path that truly
frightens me. I am not so worried about myself as
I fear for the future generations that will inherit
the great burden of debt and hatred we will reap
from our country's current political actions, both
foreign and domestic. Our leaders have abandoned
the great and honorable tradition of drawing the
world to our model of freedom, liberty, and justice
by means of our own moral behavior and actions, and
now foolishly lead the world toward endless hatred,
division, and calamity by means of their bellicose
war-mongering and misguided geopolitical blunderings.
I hold no ill feelings toward the Democrats. I
believe there have been many decent, thoughtful,
and hardworking Democrats, doing their best to hold
the line against an increasingly leveraged Republican
message. But I no longer believe the Democrat party
can produce the message that will attract back all
those that have abandoned it for the false promises
of the far right.
I believe that we must abandon a party that can
only manage, at its best, to offer up a weak and
reactionary protest after the fact. That is not
enough to save this country. We need a new model.
That model, that set of values, that truly and deeply
progressive and whole vision already exists. It can
be found in the Green party.
The Green Party of California Platform (from the
Green Party of California site)
- Ecology & Earth Stewardship
http://cagreens.org/platform/ecology.htm
- Social Justice & Liveable Communities
http://cagreens.org/platform/soc_jus.htm
- Peace & Nonviolence
http://cagreens.org/platform/peace.htm
- Democracy & Electoral Reform
http://cagreens.org/platform/democrac.htm
- Community-Based Sustainable Economics
http://cagreens.org/platform/economy.htm
Ten Key Values
http://cagreens.org/platform/10k.htm
- Ecological Wisdom
- Grassroots Democracy
- Social Justice
- Nonviolence
- Decentralization
- Community-Based Economics
- Feminism
- Respect for Diversity
- Global Responsibility
- Sustainability
Follow these links and read these principles. I
cannot find a single solitary thing that I disagree
with in the whole lot of them. In fact in them
I see a whole range of ideas and principles and
strategies that I have already embraced
wholeheartedly for decades.
In this move we will not be rejecting the values
and traditional platform of the Democrat party,
but rather heeding the call of a more compelling
and clear vision of an attainable future. I have
been won over. And I believe that many other
Democrats just like me, if given an indication of
a mass movement, will do likewise.
Only in this new internet age could we truly hope
for a rapidly organized conscious and coordinated
movement on this scale. It cannot be centralized.
It will take the decentralized and individual
initiatives of thousands and thousands of individuals
to trigger a significant move.
Yes, there are great political risks in this strategy,
and there are many that will use fear to try to retain
their internal power in the Democrat party. I have
previously argued myself for revitalizing the Democrat
party, but no longer believe that it's possible.
Something is fundamentally, and fatally, wrong with
the Democrat party. And I believe that thousands of
others believe likewise, but are afraid to move to
the Green party one at a time.
I believe a mass migration is possible. I believe
it's possible to recapture the spirit of us all as
a group. I believe that in order to do this we will
have to take control of our national destiny at the
grass roots.
I do not want, nor will I accept any form of ownership,
management, or control over this idea whatsoever. I
offer only the idea itself, and the personal opinion
that it needs to occur no later than this Summer in
order to have time to fundamentally affect the 2006
mid-term elections. I believe that the Summer Solstice,
a natural symbol of our planet's place in the cosmos,
is a suitably auspicious date for this mass act to
take place, and that the five months between now and
that date is long enough for this idea to take hold,
grow, and be sufficiently planned and supported.
This movement, if it is to succeed, must take hold
and grow completely on its own. It must emerge as
the additive ideas and supporting inventions and
facilitations of many others scattered across this
great country. Perhaps it will be taken up by
moveon.org, or the progressive bloggers. I don't
know. I don't believe this is about knowing how
it will happen. I believe it is primarily about
believing that it is possible. And turning the
idea loose in the ideosphere.
Everything else will take care of itself.
Just spread the word.
