When the obstacle to everything we stand for is two-party rule, there is no solution, no change of direction to be found within either of the two ruling parties.
Right now is the best time to reject business-as-usual. A majority of Americans have expressed dissatisfaction with a choice limited to two major parties (Sept. 17 Gallup poll). Millions of Democratic voters were so unmotivated that they stayed home on Nov. 2.
Coincidentally, most Americans also want an end to the wars, most disapprove of the Wall Street bailouts, and I'm willing to bet that most don't want their Social Security benefits slashed or turned into chips in the Wall Street casino. Most prefer more government involvement in health care, not less (AP poll, Sept. 26). In other words, most Americans side with alternative parties like the Greens on big issues.
Throughout American history, the most urgent ideas came from alternative parties: abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, the eight-hour workday and other workplace rights, Social Security, etc. In her nomination acceptance speech, 2008 Green vice-presidential candidate Rosa Clemente said, "The Green Party isn't an alternative. It's an imperative."
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Time for a Voters' Revolt
Ending two-party dominance requires more than just a few more registrations and votes for a new party. This 'memo' is not a Green recruiting brochure. Nor is it an exhortation for exclusively voting Green in every election. Greens are not on every ballot, nor would I advise voting according to party without regard for candidates' qualifications.
Rather, it's an appeal for progressive, antiwar, pro-environmental voters, and anyone who cares about America's future to recognize the alternative party imperative, and to support that imperative however they can.
What we need, as a preliminary for the emergence of the Greens or any other alternative, is a popular voters' revolt against the rule of the Titanic parties (a phrase coined by Laura Wells, Green candidate for governor of California in 2010). It should be led by a coalition of alternative parties that have found themselves virtually shut out of the political system and the media, including Greens, Socialists, Libertarians, independents, and others, as well as Tea Partiers frustrated by their movement's absorption into the GOP and sympathetic Democrats and Republicans.
All of these camps can unite in coalition, without sacrificing their own political platforms, to set the framework for a voters' revolt. The first step for such a coalition would be a list of demands that presuppose no political ideology beyond a desire for clean and open elections, and which appeal to fair-minded voters regardless of party registration. Here are my recommendations:
--A call to elect qualified candidates outside the two established parties to Congress, state legislatures, and other offices at local, state, and national levels.
--Candidates' debate forums that include all candidates and abolition of the Commission on Presidential Debates (owned and run by the Democratic and Republican parties), based on the principle that voters have a right to know about all the names they'll see on the ballot and a right to vote for whichever candidates best represents their own interests and ideals, without a two-party limit.
--Various election reforms, including Proportional Representation, Instant Runoff Voting (which offsets the danger that a minority party or independent candidate might 'spoil'), and other alternatives to at-large and winner-take-all elections; far-reaching campaign finance reforms; tamper-proof open-software computer voting machines; punishment for public officials who conspire to manipulate vote counts.
--Passage of the MoveToAmend amendment, which would abolish corporate 'personhood' and overturn the Citizens United ruling.
--Repeal of ballot-access laws in many states that hinder alternative parties and privilege Democrats and Republicans; for an outrageous example in one state, see "Some political parties remain outlaws in Pa." by Oliver Hall in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
--Repeal of rules in some states that limit the number of candidates on the ballot to two in the general election (and fierce opposition in states where such rules have been proposed).
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