a motley collection of unreconstructed left wing radicals (Marxists and anarchists), young anti-globalization types, and Ross Perot-type protest voters.
Certainly there is an minority within the Green Party that fits this description. They're organized in Peter Camejo's group that calls itself Greens for Democracy and Independence. Although a number of folks whose first loyalty belongs to the Greens have joined GDI for a variety of reasons, the core of Camejo's group (like Camejo himself) are lifelong sectarian leftists for whom the Green Party is simply the latest in a series of vehicles to achieve their teleological vision of the future. Many of these folks are committed members of the ISO.
But the Camejo wing of the Green Party (I'd call it the Nader wing, but Nader has repeatedly refused to join the party at all) have repeatedly lost intraparty debates over the last couple years. They lost last year, when our convention nominated David Cobb, instead of endorsing Nader's quixotic independent presidential campaign. And they lost this year when, at the U.S. Green Party's annual meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a number of GDI proposals to "reform" the Green Party were decisively defeated by the delegates.
The majority of the Green Party are activists who are committed to a distinctly Green vision, built around our party's Ten Key Values: Social Justice, Community-Based Economics, Nonviolence, Decentralisation, Future Focus/Sustainability, Feminism, Personal and Global Responsibility, Respect for Diversity, Grassroots Democracy, Ecological Wisdom. We understand that building a Green Party in this country is a long process, and that it will happen from the ground up. The key to our longterm success is not losing presidential races, but winning local races and building trust. That's why dozens of local Green elected officials are going to work for their communities every day.
Now the Green Party of the United States is certainly not the "pro-market," centrist-but-environmentally-friendly party of Ben P's dreams. But it is even more certainly not the red-baiting caricature that he presents.
For those interested in finding out more about what the Green Party of the United States actually is, please check out our website.
Your description of where the US Green party is working in the moment, is exactly how te German Green party started out in Germany as well. local activism, election into district, regional parliaments. but then there was the PR, but i understand, there are states, that vote (internally) also with PR, or at least on some district level?
Except their leadership was taken over by that motley collection of unreconstituted left wing radicals (Marxists and anarchists), who then quickly reconstituted themselves, for example becoming ministers :-) (See Fischer above. It is noteworthy that much of the original 'Realo' wing started out as far-left rather than environmentalist, and just the opposite for the Fundis.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
