Electoral Politics

‘No Impact Man’ Runs for Office

The Atlantic by Colin Beavan November 16, 2012 My unlikely course in activist politicking started with a May call from a member of the executive committee of the Green Party of New York State. The call came, I understood, because of the notoriety of my very-publicly performed 2007 experiment in extreme environmental living in the middle of Manhattan. The project had been intended to question and look for alternatives to the typical American’s consumption-based way of life. It was also a vehicle to help bring broader public attention to the range of our environmental crises — from ocean depletion to…


Voting Green in a Swing State

Counterpunch by B. SIDNEY SMITH WEEKEND EDITION OCTOBER 26-28, 2012 “You’re Doing WHAT???” I live in a purple part of the country (Virginia) and move in academic circles, so of course I know many, many people who will be voting for Obama. It is impossible to know, but if I sodomized the Easter Bunny in front of their children the look on my Obama-voter friends’ faces could scarcely be much different than the look they get when I say I am voting for Jill Stein. “But this is a swing state…you have to vote for Obama…what if Romney wins?!?” The…


Green Party Populism

CounterPunch by STEPHEN LENDMAN OCTOBER 26-28, 2012 “An Unjust Society is Unsustainable” Imagine a political party wanting America governed progressively. Imagine its platform stressing social justice, human and civil rights, peace, disarmament, and other populist policies America’s duopoly spurns. More on this below. On October 23, Russia Today and C-SPAN broadcast 90 minutes of debate by third party presidential candidates Jill Stein (Green Party), Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Virgil Goode (Constitution Party), and Rocky Anderson (Justice Party). Scoundrel media coverage was scant. Broadcast and cable news networks ignored it. Chicago’s Hilton and Towers served as venue. The Chicago Tribune headlined “Third-party…