[Sosfbay-discuss] Some jarring stats

Sun Nov 9 09:14:14 PST 2008

I agree, Tian. Ideological campaigns will never win us an election. We are Green. People look at us and say, "If you are Green, why are you talking to me about________(fill in the blank)?"  They expect us to be about the environment, and this is a very important time to be about the environment. People (some, not all) are becoming environmentally conscious.
They are probably confused and disappointed that we are not leading the charge to save the world as we know it. Well, why aren't we? 
Caroline

--- On Sat, 11/8/08, Tian Harter <tnharter at aceweb.com> wrote:

From: Tian Harter <tnharter at aceweb.com>
Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] Some jarring stats
To: "Post South SF Bay discus" <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>
Date: Saturday, November 8, 2008, 3:55 PM

Wes Rolley wrote:
> Fred Duperrault wrote:
>>  > The two Independents  (Cindy Sheehan and Thomas Lash) received a
total of 64,793 votes.
>>     Their average was 32,397.
> Fred,  not sure if it is your mistake, or the Chronicles, but Lash is a 
> Green who had a lot of back-Lash from Democrats who were afraid that he 
> would "spoil" the chances to take out Dana Rohrabacher.  As it
turned 
> out, the margin was closer than in any of Rohrabacher's other
elections, 
> but it was not Tom's fault.
> 
> I have a different view from Tian's (we need to run more candidates). 

> While Tian is right, the problem is much greater than that.
> 
> Green candidates tend to run ideological races.  They get into electoral 
> races for the single reason that they care passionately about a single 
> issue and this is their way to "do something."  Often, however,
their 
> single issue is not the issue on which candidates are making up their 
> minds for voting.

I learned a lot about how my issues connected to the issues that matter
to other people by running. You haven't been around me enough to hear 
this many times (if at all), but when people ask me why I share my 
little speech nowadays I tell them "I'm trying to make free speech
worth 
something."

Ever get that "nothing is sacred" feeling? Is it the same for you as
it 
is for me? How do you know?

Running for office is a lot of work. People only do it if there is 
"something in it for me". If that isn't getting the word out on 
something you care about, then why do it?
> 
> Green Party candidates tend to be supporting issues that involve major 
> moral / ethical decisions and which are most commonly being fought out 
> in Washington DC, not Sacrament or San Jose.  As a result, it takes a 
> lot more money, will, time, volunteers to mount a winning campaign.  My 
> conclusion is that our candidates need to have a much broader appeal and 
> to aim their campaigns at the issues on which voters are deciding.  This 
> year, if you did not have a clear *economic* message, you did not get 
> votes. ;

My conclusion was that the corporate noise machine is drowning out 
valuable information in a steady tide of counterproductive waste.
Is that tsunami of crap capable of hiding valuable information? Yes.
Is it sustainable? No. Will they shut it down for me? No. Can it make 
tract houses in Fresno valuable to bay area commuters? Maybe for a short 
while. Will they learn? Stay tuned....

Ummm... What you call "Ideological campaigns" mostly run on volunteer

effort. What is a more renewable resource than that? What you are 
suggesting sounds good, but unless you want to do your own campaign 
based on your ideas they are just that.
> 
> I also feel that Greens have an aversion to doing the type of voter data 
> management that the other parties do as a matter of course.  It smacks 
> of invasion of privacy, of using manipulation , etc.  The image that 
> comes to mind now is the TIA system in the just finished Masterpiece 
> Theater's production of The Last Enemy.  Still, we must do better 
> organizationally on this than we have in the past.  I am impressed with 
> Peter's dedication to making sure that his voter information is built 
> upon and improved.  In some cases, party observers were tracking every 
> voter who voted so that their names could be deleted from call lists at 
> phone banks.  There is no reason to call someone who has already voted.  
> We are not anywhere near that.

I could tell you some wild and woolly stories about privacy invasion...
> 
> With everything else going on, we tend to be like the general public, 
> focusing on the next election about six weeks before it happens.  We 
> need to immediately start the planning for the next election and picking 
> targets / soliciting candidates.
> 
> I am firmly of the belief that Greens, in running away from the 
> ecological basis on which our party was established, have missed 
> connecting with a generation of voters.  I would say that we have to 
> return to our ideological roots but that implies that we had ever turned 
> an ideology into a practical plan for governance.  We did not, but it is 
> not too late to do so now.  

Ummm... I know at least one or two Greens that didn't run away from
their roots. Pretending they don't exist is pandering to the corporate 
noise machine.
> 
> The Obama Presidency will be a massive disappointment for those who 
> wanted to see fundamental changes.  It will be return to the 
> triangulation of power vectors that marked the Clinton years, as can be 
> seen by the economic advisers standing behind him at his press 
> conference yesterday.  Larry Summers, Paul Volker, Robert Rubin are the 
> masterminds who, along with Alan Greenspan, set the foundations in place 
> for Bush and Company to build such a wobbly structure.  The laws that 
> allowed Banks to Gamble on mortgage defaults, etc. originated with 
> Rubin's blessing and signed into law by Clinton, not Bush.

Ummm... I think the security state machine learned a thing or two about
what not to do in the course of those triangulations. We shall see...
> 
> Things will get worse, a lot worse before they get better and we need to 
> be putting forward an alternative, not in 2 years, but right now.

Last evening I was talking to a woman on the first Friday art walk. She 
was telling me that there is no choice but to be represented by the two 
party system. I responded that it is better to be the politician in your 
own back yard. I pointed out that what is underrated is the power of 
good citizenship. I explained that one difference between California and
Virginia is that in California you have to tell the Government which 
political party you are joining when you register. In Virginia they 
don't think political parties exist. Then I went through the whole thing
about how for years I've been telling people "it's a good thing to
have
harmless bushes in your life" while pointing to or touching a perennials
plant. I finished the anecdote by saying "I'm painfully aware that the
political currency of that joke is going to change in about 75 days."

I derive hope from the fact it will still be a good thing to be a good 
citizen then.
> 
> So, the last thing that I have to say is that the Green Party is losing 
> vote, losing registration because we have been consumed by ideological 
> campaigns rather than paying attention to solving the real problems on 
> which real voters are making up their minds.
> 
If you look at a VTA nowadays, you will see a "KEEP THE VALLEY GREEN"

logo on the side. In my more euphoric moments I think they like us.
-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
Latest change: Added SCCGP election night party pictures and commentary.
I hit the "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the collage by my door with photons
while
I was hearing Wangari Mathai say "United States of America" on my
radio.
_______________________________________________
sosfbay-discuss mailing list
sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20081109/af4f361f/attachment.html>