The owner of Claycraft is a Green from Mingeisota, now living and working in Mashiko, Japan. However, he was an active Green when living in Minneapolis and that shows in his posts to his own group.
Another potter posted the following to ClayCraft.
I've been wary of the Greens since Republican money was accepted by them back east. On the political compass I came out just below Gandhi. Economic Left/Right -5.00. Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -6.82. I'm still a Democrat. In my book, the Minnesota Democrats are real Democrats. The kind that inhabit DailyKosThe list owner replied by posting the 10 KV and elicited the following response.
Holy Cow! I'm a Green! Well, I actually knew that. My dad was a died in the wool Democrat, hobnobbed with the likes of Henry Jackson, Warren Magnusson, and Tom Foley. That's the kind of politics I grew up with.Well, that discussion ranged far from clay. Yet that we do as people becomes part of what we do as artists, a fact that does not exempt politics.
I think that we do ourselves no good when we ignore the full range of all ten values and focus on just the hot button issue of the day. If that happens to be your hot button issue (Iraq, impeachment) then OK. But, to do so as a "progressive strategy" is only a way to try and change the Democratic Party, not to build the Green Party.
3 comments:
I have said repeatedly to Greens and crypto-Greens alike that people love the 10KV (esp. when you avoid trite political terms to describe these core ideals). Until they understand the 10KV, most would say they "disagree" with Greens.
In this case, the Green "brand" is not well associated with the Green product -- and in fact can detract from the product, as you observed.
Roger,
I think you are right. Part of the problem is that Ralph Nader made the Green Party look like a patsy. I remember an interviewer ask him about Green Values and Nader said they weren't important to him. He was just using the Greens as a vehicle.
I lost all my respect for him when I heard him say this. And now, when you mention the Green Party to liberals, they go ballistic about Nader.
I think because the party as about the same press as the Communist Party, that a Green caucus in the Democratic Party might be the only way to go. Unless the G.P. can get a real environmentalist like Gore to run.
Thanks for chiming in, Lee.
You seem to post a catch-22 quandry for Greens. First is the need to have a high profile "real environmentalist" run for a top job. Then, you have to ask why a "real environmentalist" would run for a top job through a minor party, since that would seem to be a way to not get elected.
Rather, I think that we need to put forward those candidate from within the party who have a real understanding of the 10 KV AND, just as importantly, know how to translate that into policy. We have a lot of people who can talk about the 10 KV in terms of their person life, but not many who can articulate what it means for governmental policy.
Where we do that, we have election winners.
Post a Comment