Subject: Re: [Greensfornader] Delegates: Which way in 2004?
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 02:25:07 EDT

Sure, put me on the list--that is, if you don't mind a dissenting voice. I 
have to wonder if the Nader/Camejo campaign will brook dissenting voices, since 
we seem to be dismissing the most important voice of all--the voice of the 
Green Voter. 

We had primaries. Ralph Nader chose not to run in our primaries. His 
supporters now make the disingenuous argument that he couldn't run because he had an 
exploratory committee and was prohibited from running. Other candidates, 
including David Cobb, managed to be done "exploring," and to get out there and make 
their case to the Green voters. At the end of this process, David had the most 
votes. Peter Camejo won the California primary as the "favorite son," but 
never said explicitly to the voters that he was actually runniing to be the 
vice-presidential candidate on a non-Green ticket; to be fair, I'm sure he didn't 
expect this, but the point is the voters didn't either.

This is supposed to be a party based on grassroots democracy, not backroom 
deals. The notion that Peter would say to this party, in essence, if you don't 
nominate me, I'm running against you on an independent ticket, is both 
infuriating and saddening.

Look, I'm a gay man in my forties. I have an old address book with page after 
page where everybody's dead of AIDS. For years I couldn't even look at it. 
Last year, I had a friend who died in the UN bombing in Baghdad--a gay man who 
dedicated his life to justice for Palestine and was the UN's chief expert on 
the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He died because this incredibly reckless 
and stupid war destroyed security in Iraq and let a cement mixer full of 
explosives roll through the wall of the UN building while the American tanks were 
guarding the Oil Ministry. I spend every day of my work life giving health care 
to homeless people with AIDS, hepatitis C, diabetes, mental illness, and 
substance abuse. Please don't anybody try to insinuate that I don't know how bad 
the Bush Administration is, or how useless the Kerry candidacy is. 

Would it feel good to watch Peter cut down Dick Cheney in the debates? Sure. 
I frankly doubt Peter would be in those debates. But so what? Are we a party 
that wants to debate Dick Cheney with a celebrity candidate, or are we a party 
that wants to grow from the grassroots? The most dangerous thing we can do, in 
my opinion, is to become a party that prioritizes protest candidacies over 
our longterm growth. I couldn't possibly care less about helping Kerry win; 
that's a lost cause anyway, I mean, have you listed to him? What I care about is 
being able to give a clear, coherent message to voters: "Here's what the Green 
Party stands for. You know the stakes. Vote your conscience at the 
presidential level, support local Green candidates, and register Green." It will be 
disastrous for our ability to organize among currently ambivalent voters, if we are 
seen as a party whose futile protest led to four more years of the Bushites. 
And make no mistake, those ambivalent voters are our future.

We are a party that believes in democracy, but that still affords the 
minority to have their concerns heard, and insofar as possible, met. I have heard all 
kinds of misrepresentations of David's candidacy, from a mischaracterization 
of his position on electoral strategy, to misrepresentations about his views 
on Iraq. Our convention should be an opportunity for delegates in the electoral 
minority to express their concerns, many of which I believe could be 
successfully addressed. What we are seeing instead is an electoral minority that wants 
to hijack our process. I believe their ultimate goal is to prevent our coming 
to consensus, so their non-Green ticket can run without a Green challenge. 

I had decided this week for personal and health reasons, not to go to 
Milwaukeee. But I will not stand idly by while the future of our party and its 
principles are compromised, so I'll see you in Milwaukee.

Paul Quick
San Francisco