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Friends,<br>
<br>
<br>
Regarding the discussion on why there is a drop in Green Party
membership, has anybody checked to see how much the Democratic,
Republican and other smaller parties have fared.<br>
<br>
I think there has a been a general reduction of interest in joining, or
maintaining membership in, all parties.<br>
Nevertheless,one would think that at many of all of those nurses,
firemen, teachers and others who got active in opposing Arnold's
proposition, would want to line up in a friendly political party. I'm
hoping that the Greens were visible enough in supporting them that we
would get our proportional share<br>
of new members.<br>
<br>
Other factors, I think, that have been detrimental are:<br>
<br>
1) Although local weekly newspapers and some more progressive papers
like the Guardian and Metro my give more coverage to the Greens, the
major dailies and the major TV outlets act if they never heard of the
Green Party, unless a Green is one of the leading candidate for a high
office. Also, most reporters, columnists and editors are loyal to the
two major parties and think that the status quo of a two party system
is the way it should be.<br>
<br>
I also think that the media staffs are too lazy to extend their minds
to learn about 3rd parties and the about election reforms, etc. We're
the odd ball nerds on the block that they have no time for. Many
prospective members feel the same, also.<br>
<br>
3) Because of the above it is harder to raise advertising money, so
important in a competitive election. Also we haven't enough money to
hire a national and state staff that should include full time
organizers, media specialists, etc., etc.<br>
<br>
4) Although the Greens have a much larger proportion of active members
per total membership than other parties, we don't have enough to do the
nitty gritty work year in and year out.<br>
Also, when new Green potential activists attend our meetings, for the
first time, I think they are often bewildered and feel like outsiders.
I also think that they feel that there will be more talking about
issues, and much less business.<br>
5) People are busy. To be an effective Green leader like Warner, Danna,
Jim Stauffer, Tian, Gerry, Mike, Jim Doyle, Ed, Cameron, Amy, you can't
have too many other extracurricular things going on unless you have no
job or have super energy. To those guys and gals, the Green Party is
either a first or second religion.<br>
<br>
1) Lets have some fun events and general rap sessions more often; and<br>
2) One Saturday every ten weeks during no-election years we conduct a
door to door get acquainted with constituents walk.<br>
3) We do some brain storming on coming up with some out of the box
ideas to get more and favorable visibility.<br>
<br>
Gotta go.<br>
<br>
Fred<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alexcathy@aol.com">alexcathy@aol.com</a> wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid8C7B52F1B556815-1C18-52F4@FWM-R38.sysops.aol.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">does show the change from Feb. 2005 to Sep. 2005.
The GPCA decrease was 6%. The GPSCC decrease was 15%.
And clearly this can not be explained by people switching
to vote for Dean or Kucinich.
I would certainly like to hear a discussion of why this is happening.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
I think it is one of those classic cases of "What came first? The
chicken or the egg?"
What comes first? Green board members, coucil members, mayors, and
legisaltors; or strong Green Party organization?
Look at the registration figures by county. In Humboldt County it's
5%. In Mendocino County it's close to 5%. There are also several
prominent elected Greens there, including the Mayor of Arcadia in
Humboldt County. Elect people to office and activists think "Wow!
These guys are serious! If I wanna be part of the action I need to
register Green!" The way things are around here if you really wanna be
part of the action most people think they have to register Democratic.
Even now after Arnold's crashing defeat in Tuesday's Special Election
all the the goddamn pundits and bloggers, even the "Lefty" ones, are
all buzzing over the question "What will THE DEMOCRATS do now?" Even
progressives who say it was great that Prop 77 was defeated, but that
we really do need real reform are saying "Well, now the Democrats and
the Republicans need to go back to the drawing board." I actually read
an article that QUOTED Peter Camejo's analysis of California's fiscal
problems without ever suggesting that Mr. Camejo just might be a good
governor. On some of the Black-oriented web sites i still see
"nationalist" fantasies about the "solution" to inner-city problems
will be in reach as soon as we reach the Nirvana of "Black Unity" and
everybody is all excited about old Ron Dellums running for mayor of
Oakland. None dare say that it is pathetic that the Black Democrats in
Oakland are so bad off they gotta turn to a 70-year old guy to step out
of retirement.
I saw one blogger who proposed that the "Dream Team" for taking out
Schwarzenegger next year would be Phil Angelides and Warren Beatty!
Please!
I, for one, do not want to go from "The Terminator" to "Bulworth".
Besides, Democrats and Republicans are just never going to fix our
problem. The very process of organizing in accordance with Green
principles is part of the solution to the problems created by
organizing politics in accordance with the cynical and corrupt
"principles" of Republicans and Democrats.
By the way, I saw a press release issued by the California Green Party
claiming that as of Tuesday, we have 66 elected Greens in California.
Doggone it! Something is happening! California is ready for a Green
Revolution, but we need good local candidates and the Campaigns &
Candidates Working Group needs to figure out more ways to help those
candidates raise a little money and run campaigns to win. It's a
little embarassing that we don't have any elected Greens in Santa Clara
County. My God there are just soooooo many issues.
Alex Walker
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</blockquote>
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