Politics and Environmentalism

An old friend writes:

Craig: I filled out my mail-in ballot yesterday, and saw Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate’s name for the first time. Unfortunately, I hadn’t heard anything about her until I saw her on the ballot. Why has the Green Party been so docile through this election cycle? I note that they have become a genuine power in Germany. They’ve also made some progress in the UK. Why not in the US? After Ralph Nader, there has been nothing visible. It seems like California would be the one place in the world where serious energy could erupt. Maybe advocates like you could drive our friend Al Gore to take a shot in 2016. I’m not crazy about Al, but he’s a big name. And he’d probably love the return to relevance.

Or maybe you could run! Not as crazy as you might think. All it takes is a couple of big donors to get the ball rolling. You’ve already got my vote!

I respond: 

Ha!  You’re very kind. 

I’m anything but an expert on U.S. politics.  But my experience as an every-day citizen suggests that the big money has forwarded the main two parties to the exclusion of the others.  I may have told you that I was a Libertarian for a couple of decades, and I would take my son when he was young to the polling place with me.  I remember how appalled he was when he learned that I voted for an abject loser in the 1998 mid-term when he was five.  Of course, I explained that I knew that the Libertarians were lucky to have gotten 1% of the popular vote, and that I was “voting my conscience,” but I remember that he was totally unconsoled. 

The Libertarians, the Greens, The Peace and Freedoms, etc.  do not play a serious role, considering the money that the Pharmaceuticals, the Fossil-Fuelers, the Wall Streeters, etc. bring to the table.  That’s the beginning and the end of the story.  I’ll continue to vote my conscience, and to do my best to see what I can for what I believe, but I’m not sufficiently delusional to think it will matter in the current politics of the U.S. – even with your vote, for which I’m quite flattered.