Benjamin Meiklejohn commented on Asher Platts Warned Us About Bernie Sanders
2016-07-18 01:38:56 -0700
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Oh, I misunderstood the expression ‘giving a wide berth." I thought it meant you were giving the party a lot of lattitude and a chance, despite your frustration.
My frustration is actually similar, and I agree with you that Greens shouldn’t get so hung up on what other Greens, as individuals, decide to support by their own personal choice.
The irony of the article I thought, was how the speaker criticizes Greens for leaving the party to join Democrats, yet at the same time, a year ago, the very same speaker told Greens who wanted to support Sanders but wanted to remain Greens and NOT join the Democrat that they couldn’t remain as Greens if they supported Sanders.
The effect, as I wrote to Ed recently is this:
“Greens showed other (Sanders-supporting) Greens to the door and said, ‘Get out.’ So while the Democrats are culpable for luring people into the sheepdog effect, equally so are certain Greens culpable for expelling Greens directly out into the sheepdog effect.”
I advocate for patience, tolerance and understanding amongst Greens toward each others’ individual choices, and to trust that democracy will prevail to reveal the collective will of the majority of its members.
Therefore, when any one Green endorses a Democrat, that’s not a big deal to me, and nothing worth making hay about, because there will never be enough of those individuals to result in the whole party endorsing a Democrat.
Anyway, I take it you don’t live in Maine, Phyllis? If you do, you surely would have run into one of us by now. We’re a bigger deal here than in most places in the country.
I was the first Green elected in Portland, Maine, back in 2001, and at least 17 Greens have been elected in this city after me.
I haven’t voted for a Democrat or Republican in 20 years, so I get defensive when somebody claims that I’m trying to help the Democratic Party, or that my party, the Green Party is trying to be a wing of the Democratic Party, just because a couple of individuals in the party deviate from the party line to support a Democrat.
I hope you have a positive experience in the future and please don’t let these squabblings between any two individuals affect your opinion of the party proper as a whole. It’s unfair to the party to let two people’s words serve as the representation of hundreds of thousnads of others.
There are lots of good people in the party, kind, caring and eloquent people who just want to save the world from poison and corporations.
At any rate, if Bernie is your man, and he doesn’t pull of a miracle to win his party’s nomination, I hope you will give serious consideration to Jill Stein over Hillary Clinton.
Stein is still worth your vote even if you do arrive at eleciton day with a negative disposition toward the Green Party.
Best wishes to you,
Ben
My frustration is actually similar, and I agree with you that Greens shouldn’t get so hung up on what other Greens, as individuals, decide to support by their own personal choice.
The irony of the article I thought, was how the speaker criticizes Greens for leaving the party to join Democrats, yet at the same time, a year ago, the very same speaker told Greens who wanted to support Sanders but wanted to remain Greens and NOT join the Democrat that they couldn’t remain as Greens if they supported Sanders.
The effect, as I wrote to Ed recently is this:
“Greens showed other (Sanders-supporting) Greens to the door and said, ‘Get out.’ So while the Democrats are culpable for luring people into the sheepdog effect, equally so are certain Greens culpable for expelling Greens directly out into the sheepdog effect.”
I advocate for patience, tolerance and understanding amongst Greens toward each others’ individual choices, and to trust that democracy will prevail to reveal the collective will of the majority of its members.
Therefore, when any one Green endorses a Democrat, that’s not a big deal to me, and nothing worth making hay about, because there will never be enough of those individuals to result in the whole party endorsing a Democrat.
Anyway, I take it you don’t live in Maine, Phyllis? If you do, you surely would have run into one of us by now. We’re a bigger deal here than in most places in the country.
I was the first Green elected in Portland, Maine, back in 2001, and at least 17 Greens have been elected in this city after me.
I haven’t voted for a Democrat or Republican in 20 years, so I get defensive when somebody claims that I’m trying to help the Democratic Party, or that my party, the Green Party is trying to be a wing of the Democratic Party, just because a couple of individuals in the party deviate from the party line to support a Democrat.
I hope you have a positive experience in the future and please don’t let these squabblings between any two individuals affect your opinion of the party proper as a whole. It’s unfair to the party to let two people’s words serve as the representation of hundreds of thousnads of others.
There are lots of good people in the party, kind, caring and eloquent people who just want to save the world from poison and corporations.
At any rate, if Bernie is your man, and he doesn’t pull of a miracle to win his party’s nomination, I hope you will give serious consideration to Jill Stein over Hillary Clinton.
Stein is still worth your vote even if you do arrive at eleciton day with a negative disposition toward the Green Party.
Best wishes to you,
Ben
