Policies and positioning for presidential candidates

As we consider the choice of Green Party presidential candidates, it appears to me that two things are happening. Like all of the other parties, the decision seems to be coming down to the issue of electability and causes many Greens to look outside the party for a "name" to carry the Green Flag. The names most mentioned are Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. Both have been designated to be placed on the ballot for the presidential nomination by the General Assembly of the Green Party of California.

Both feel that they have to deal with the inevitability of the "spoiler myth." Whether on a web site or on radio, it will always come up.

However, if we start by looking at the positions taken by various candidates on significant policy issue, like energy, we would come to the conclusion that others are more prepared than either of these name candidates. As in yesterday's post I called attention to Jared Ball for his recognition of the need to reach an urban population of color, I would call attention today to Kent Mesplay.

Mesplay is the only one of the candidates for the Green Party nomination that has bothered to think through and articulate an energy policy. There is an environmental aspect of being green that has all but disappeared from the progressive agenda. If you look at the issues that are being articulated by McKinney, for example, you won't find any mention of environmental justice, of energy, of climate change and its affects on agricultural policy.

I look at Hillary's set of issues. She also has a fully articulated science policy. Mesplay gives is some attention.

I want an improved political process that allows good candidates to run so that we have public officials who treat science with respect and who actually work to make us more secure rather than catering to their favorite businesses.

There is a list of issues on which all of the candidates take position that are generally considered "progressive." They include support for ending the war in Iraq, affordable health care for all and sound very much like Bill Richardson. In addition, they all talk of the need for electoral reform so that we may never have to deal the the spoiler issue again.

If you take away the question of name recognition and look at candidates based on whether or not they truly represent the values of this party, I would certainly recommend nominating Kent Mesplay and Jared Ball. However, national name recognition is likely to carry the day in the Green Party just as there is little doubt that Hillary's name will carry the day for the Democrats.

Creativiy and Community

I've been doing some varied reading over the past several weeks and, though it was not intentional, I find that some of the same threads keep coming together in a way that makes me wonder about the books I selected, both now and in the past.

If I go back a few years, I remember going to hear Dr. Richard Florida speak about his book, The Rise of the Creative Class. Florida's thesis is that the communities who thrive, who ultimately "win" in economic competitions are the same communities that have a well developed community of creative people: artists, musicians, thinkers, scientists. These are all people who do not automatically conform to the structures of suburban bliss and are more accustomed to doing things in their own way. Of course, Florida has turned this into a consulting business.

I only reference that because I see a reflection of that idea in a Brooklyn (NY) based blog, Atlantic Yards Report. Blogger Norman Oder attended a panel discussion on the subject "Is NY losing is soul?" and gave us an informative recap.

Where's the soul?

Tocci suggested the city’s soul is made of artists and small businesses, and from her perch as president and group publisher at TONY, she sees a growing amount of anger about affordability. Darren Walker, a VP of the Rockefeller Foundation (the major funder of the exhibit and, a half-century ago, of Jacobs), noted the city’s growing inequality and unprecedented decline in its African-American population.

This panel was connected with an exhibit entitled Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York.
Jacobs was an urbanist best known for here landmark 1961 book Death and Life of Great American Cities. Throughout the Wikipedia article on Jacobs, you read the theme that she hated expressways and loved neighborhoods. Then, it is not surprising that I read the following in her last (2006) book, Dark Age Ahead. which I am reading now.

Not TV or illegal drugs but the automobile has been the chief destroyer of American communities. Highways and roads obliterate the places they are supposed to serve, as for example highways feeding the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge wiped out most of the formerly large Bay Ridge community in Brooklyn. (Is this so different from West Oakland today?)

Through this there are a couple of themes emerging. One is that creativity needs communities, at least no more expensive than middle class can afford. So, the load falls unevenly on different segments of our population. As Walker suggested above, it is urban populations of color that are in decline.

In a post at Green Commons today, I discussed the effect that undeclared big name candidates were having on the Green Party Presidential nomination. The focus was on Cynthia McKinney as her status seems to change with the group that she is addressing.

I would like to turn some of our attention to Jared Ball's candidacy, as it appears to me that he is addressing some of the issues raised by Jacobs, and Darren Walker.

It is time to build a genuine populist party, one built on the proper politics of those who, like Kwame Ture once made clear, are no longer willing to accept the lesser of evil because, “we will not vote for evil, period.”

To that end we are developing a campaign which seeks to break convention by centering attention and focus on culture, those most oppressed and those who have long since given up on the vote and are looking for a new politics and new organizations. We are working with “the mayor of DC hip-hop” Head-Roc and others to provide a hip-hop and progressive artist tour which will reach out to the Indigenous, Black, Latino and poor communities who will help us develop new bases of support for the Green Party.

It appears to me that Jared would have been very comfortable sitting down with Jane Jacobs and that is a plus. It is obvious that he understands the connection between creative artists and community and that is another plus.

The candidate is....

The GPCA has had it's General Assembly in Riverside, decided on a list of candidates (Jared Ball, Elaine Brown, Jesse Johnson, Kent Mesplay, Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Kat Swift) to place on the primary ballot for California's early primary.

I was working on a post supporting one of those and the ground is changing under my feet. Cynthia McKinney has sent a letter to the national steering committee asking that her name be withdrawn from the ballot.

For many, this is not surprising. While some hoped that she would run, I always felt that her final decision would be to not run, to not leave the Democratic Party. After all, she is a politician and politicians want to position themselves to win elections.

McKinney's withdrawal provoked two interesting comments: one from Gregg Jocoy and another from Alex Walker. Both can be read here, as Alex cross posted his comments as a response to Gregg. Both are worth your reading. Both have a lot of practical political insight.

Gregg made the following comment about a letter from California's Mike Feinstein.

Mike Feinstein wrote a long missive to the national Green Party, and no, I don't have a copy, in which he says that the California Green Party must address the problem of inability to cross the electoral threshold in partisan races. It's not the inability to win a congressional seat that has him concerned, but our inability to win county council, state legislative, judicial and other seats which are partisan. I'm not sure which seats are partisan, but those listed often are.

Having never seen that letter, I would hope that it contains some practical insight as to how we can manage to get this done.

Still, this is post is about the presidential candidates and I offer the following opinion. All of our candidates are anti-war. That is a given. We need to find those candidates who can best articulate the other problems we will be facing:
economic, environmental, social.

In my opinion, from the list of candidates that the GPCA will place on the ballot, there is no one candidate who can do that, not even Nader. I think that is is very important to have someone who can address the economic and social problems of the urban population. It is equally important to have a candidate who can talk about the environment, global warming and all that this entails.

From what I have gleaned from the videos of the Reading, PA Candidates Forum, this comes down to Jared Ball and Kent Mesplay from among those who are "home grown" Green Party candidates.

Will Nader run as a Green again? Until he says "yes" I will have to assume that the answer is "no".