Latest Status from an NPA Facilitator

Submitted by ed2291 on December 1, 2011 - 6:16am

Our thinking is not to get folks to switch party affiliations for caucusing or primaries, but to get truly Progressive candidates to run as Dems against incumbent Dems, so registered Dems will wake up to the reality of just how faux the Dems who call themselves progressive actually are.

It's just one component in the much broader strategy of electoral activism that we believe will be necessary over several election cycles to establish in the electorate's consciousness the folly of lesser-evil voting. But in 10 days, former Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson will announce the formation of a new party, and will just as quickly announce that he will seek its nomination. While this - as all efforts to launch additional parties - is positive, it is unfortunate Anderson and Jill Stein were unable to agree to work together. They held numerous phone conferences earlier this year and Rocky decided the Greens are a damaged brand. To the extent that the Greens have been unwilling to forge coalition tickets in the past, he's right. But Stein is willing to fight for that within the Green Party, and the fact that Anderson walked away from (1) the chance to awaken Greens to the advantages of forming such alliances, and (2) all those ballot lines, is unfortunate indeed.

Once again, it seems, the Left is allowing small disagreements over process to fracture it - and at a time when we can ill afford such shit anymore. But we'll keep trying to pull it - and ALL who are fed up with getting raped by corporatist politicians - together.

-Tony Noel, NPA Facilitator

Comments

Submitted by ed2291 on December 1, 2011 - 6:30am.

Unity

We are trying to unite with other like minded organizations as is evidenced by the "Our Allies" section above. As Tony said, however, a desire to go it alone and small disagreements fracture our efforts at a time when we can ill afford it. Those who follow issues and not personalities can see the democrats and republicans have no problem coming together on policy.

Submitted by Jeff on December 21, 2011 - 8:16pm.

Update?

There's a video, dated December 16, on Jill Stein's website, being interviewed by Matt Rothschild. Apparently (I haven't listened to the entire interview), Stein says this, in response to a query as to whether she will work with Anderson:

“We have been talking with Rocky for months, and exploring how we could potentially work together, in the long run, in the short run, etc. I think Rocky is interested in creating a new party. He is newly emerged from the Democratic Party, and what you learn when you work in third party politics is that you don’t create these parties overnight. It takes a lot of work to create and maintain a party, and it’s hard to do that and run for office, and I think Rocky is testing the waters right now and we’ll see how the conversation progresses, but there is a very friendly and collaborative dialogue going on between us at this point.”

What's the scoop?

FWIW, I switched to Republican today so that I can vote for Paul in the Republican primary. I'd like to see the Chief War Monger catch some heat from Paul. I'll switch back after the primary to Green.

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