Green Party of the United States

The Green Party USA logo prior to the 2016 US presidential election. It portrays the Earth getting eaten by a giant, planet-sized flower.

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The Green Party of the United States (GPUSA) is an environmentalist and social/economic justice third party in the United States. This party began in Maine in 1984 and was started by two anti-nuclear-plant activists: Alan Philbrook and John Rensenbrink, the latter of whom was influenced by the Canadian and German Green Parties. The party performs relatively well for a modern American third party, but still poorly overall, holding only 133 elected seats, and all none-higher than city-council and mayoral positions.

The party attracts environmentalists, moderate-to-left populists, bleeding heart liberals, Ralph Nader fans, socialist entryists, and "crunchy conservatives". The GPUSA shared a presidential ballot line with the Socialist Party USA in 2020, upsetting a few of the more capitalist state Green Parties, who chose not to collect signatures for the nominee. Almost all GPUSA members believe the 2 major U.S. political parties are in bed with corporate interests and a 'corrupt establishment'. The party has been credited as a source of occasional policy inspiration for the US Democratic party, particularly the Green Party's 2012 'Green New Deal' proposal.^[1] The Green Party also arguably outpaced the Democratic Party in supporting Gay marriage in the state it was first spearheaded.^[2]

The GPUSA is no longer shown as part of the Global Greens^[3] because the GPUSA voluntarily left the Federation of the Green Parties of the Americas (FPVA). The reason for this departure was discontent over the FPVA imposing strict rules about which international groups the GPUSA can join outside of the Global Greens. Additionally, multiple local Green Parties, such as the Independent Greens of Virginia, are not associated with the national GPUSA. While some Greens are non-religious, the Greens as a movement arguably have roots partly in New Age philosophies of the 1980s. The Green Party of the United States also followed the German Greens lead in opposition to nuclear power. In 2016, the party adopted an eco-socialist party platform plank, much to the chagrin of the party's proud-capitalist flank. The party also notably has a long history of support for "alternative medicine" or "alternative health care".

Positions[edit]

They get all their info on vaccines from The X-Files and on nuclear power from House of Cards.^{[citation NOT needed]}

Its basic positions, known as the Ten Key Values, are:

• Grassroots democracy
• Social justice and equal opportunity
• Ecological wisdom
• Non-violence
• Decentralization
• Community-based economics and economic justice
• Feminism and gender equality
• Respect for diversity
• Personal and global responsibility
• Future focus and sustainability

and

• Marijuana decriminalization

which is promoted by some.

Electoral History[edit]

Presidential[edit]

The American Greens are a third party in a 2-party electoral system, and as such normally don't perform well in elections.^[4] The US Greens only have a membership of approximately a quarter million people nationally, not leaving much room for sweeping electoral victories. With over 100,000 less members than the US Libertarian Party, the US Libertarian Party as of 2022 outperforms the Green party in elected seats held.^[5]

2000 Nader run[edit]

Ralph Nader was a notable candidate of the Green Party, although he openly refused to join the party. His presidential run during the 2000 elections garnered almost 3,000,000 votes^[6] and may have had a spoiler effect by taking liberal swing-state voters away from Al Gore. His 97,488 votes in Florida were 96,951 more than the official difference between George W. Bush (2,912,790) and Gore (2,912,253).^[7] Nationally, Nader and the Greens came in third with 2.73% of the popular vote.^[8]

2004 Cobb run[edit]

During 2024, lawyer David Cobb was the Green Party presidential nominee. He ran against Ralph Nader (who chose to run as an independent), John Kerry, and George Bush, among others. Cobb came in fifth in the race, receiving 0.01% of the popular vote, behind Libertarian Michael Badnarik who received 0.32% and Nader who received 0.38% of the vote.^[9] Cobb largest grievance with American society was court-created notions of "corporate constitutional rights".

2008 McKinney run[edit]

In the 2008 elections, former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney was the presidential nominee. She received approximately 161,000 votes, 0.12% of the popular vote.

2020 Hawkins run[edit]

Despite claims that the Green Party "runs Jill Stein every 4 years", another person was the Green Party nominee in 2020 and performed much worse than Stein did 4 years prior.

During 2020, Howie Hawkins was the Green Party presidential nominee. He was also the Socialist Party USA nominee and was a long-time Socialist Party USA member. Howie's nomination was controversial in the Green Party and coincided with a larger effort by socialists to remake the Green Party's platform. They were ultimately successful in this, adding an "eco-socialist" plank to the Green Party platform. However, a few state Green Parties were not happy with the socialist leanings of the nominee and didn't put much effort (and sometimes no effort) in putting him on the ballot. Hawkins received 0.26% of the popular vote.^[10]

2012, 2016, 2024 Stein runs[edit]

In the 2012 and 2016 elections, physician Jill Stein was the nominee,^[11] getting one-third of 1% of the popular vote in 2012, and 1.07% of the popular vote in 2016. Remember when the "Green" Party, whose main issue was environmental protection, stole the election from a man who would've been the most environmentally-friendly head of state in the history of the world? Looks like Stein and this new Green Party didn't get that memo.^[12] They even cite 2000 as an argument for protest voting in their official platform.

Greens call the spoiler accusation a dishonest weapon used by major parties to eliminate competition from smaller parties.

PZ Myers accuses Stein of promoting anti vaccine hysteria^[13] and Bo Gardiner also criticises her refusal to state clearly that commonly used American vaccines are safe.^[14] Actually, Jill Stein's views are more nuanced than that: although she engaged in a bit of mercury woo surrounding vaccines,^[15] Stein has said that "As a medical doctor of course I support vaccinations". However, Stein has claimed that her real problem was with "the Food and Drug Administration being controlled by drug companies",^[16] saying that "Monsanto lobbyists help run the day in those agencies and are in charge of approving what food isn't safe". This is even though most Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee members work in academic or medical institutions, not drug companies, as the Washington Post pointed out.^[17]

She has also expressed a willingness to collaborate with Bernie Sanders,^[18] by allowing him to head the campaign ticket but his endorsement of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee killed that deal. Sanders urged his voters to tactically vote for Clinton against Trump, stating that if there were any chance of a coalition government (such as in many European countries), he might have a different view on whether to vote for Stein.^[19] Following Sanders' support for Clinton, searches for Jill Stein went up online, and donations to her campaign increased by over 9,000! nearly 1,000%.^[20]

In response to being accused of being a possible spoiler for the Democratic Party Stein has defended her position by saying that it's more important to focus on stopping Hillary Clinton and neoliberalism because those policies would eventually result in fascism, so if someone like Donald Trump gets elected then it was apparently inevitable anyways.^[21] In 2020 their nominee, New York trade unionist Howie Hawkins,^{[note 1]} briefly revived these fears, but they turned out to be unfounded as the Democratic base was too scared of the prospect of "four more years" to desert Joe Biden, even if they really didn't like him.

After previously running Cornel West's campaign before he decided to run as an independent, she decided to run again as the Green Party nominee in 2024.^[23] During 2024, Stein is running on a platform of dramatically expanded public housing and an end to aid of Israel in their war against the Palestinians. Notably, Stein is now regularly and explicitly calling the Democratic Party fascists for their lawsuits to get parties off ballots and their aiding of genocide of Palestinians.

Stein came in third in the 2024 presidential race, with Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in fourth, Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver in fifth, and a wide variety of people in subsequent positions.

Russia and Stein[edit]

Russia obviously courted the US Green Party in 2016, and perhaps out of an attempt to spoil Hillary Clinton's campaign. Russian hosted and televised one of the Green Party's debates via the former Russian-state-funded "RT America", and invited Stein to a lavish party which also included Trump campaign associated people. There is no evidence however that Stein was a literal 'plant' by the Russians and consciously working with the Russians to promote Russia's interest at the expense of Americans. After all, she ran in 2012, before all this Russia hysteria, and pretty much all of that hysteria is not applicable to her 2012 run. Stein also has a long history in the Green Party prior to 2012, including running for Massachusetts governor, virtually all of which is also not applicable to Russia. She also simped for the US Democratic Party after her 2016 run by running recount efforts in 2016 to see if there was any vote tampering by Republicans, Russians, whatever. Nonetheless US Democrats are fond of insinuating conspiracy theories about Stein being a plant by Russia or even Putin himself.

Local[edit]

On the local level, state Green parties have had success electing mayors,^[24] city council members, municipal government members, and only four state representatives in 23 years. (8 if you include those who switched to Green while in office)^[25]

Green Party members John Eder of Maine^[26] and Audie Bock of California were arguably the most popular Green Party politicians, (with respect to those they wanted to represent) having achieved election to state legislatures in competitive races and without loopholes, party switching, or other special circumstances. John was elected to the Maine house in 2002 as a Green defeating his Democratic opponent by a 2-1 margin.^[27]

Democrats, not having a history for being fair or kind to Green Party politicians, attempted to gerrymander John's district to prevent him being re-elected to the Maine House.^[28] John outmaneuvered their attempt by switching his district to his home district, and was re-elected in 2004. Audie Bock was elected to the California House in 1999 despite being outspent 16 to 1 by her Democratic competitor.

The rest of Green Party of the USA state legislature victories were non-competitive victories. For example, Green Party member Richard Carroll was elected to the Arkansas House after his Democratic competitor failed to collect enough signatures to appear on the ballot. Green Party member Fred Smith was elected to the Arkansas House after his Democratic competitor was convicted of conspiracy to election fraud. Fred went to court successfully to nullify his Democratic competitors votes. (Yes, people sometimes do try to rig elections)

Jello Biafra (of Dead Kennedys fame) ran on the Green Party ticket once, and he openly admitted he was a "gadfly candidate." Although he did offer some policy positions, at least, such as a "maximum wage" of $100,000.

Youth organizations[edit]

Campus Greens is the party's student organization, which is composed of students and teachers of universities, colleges, and high schools.

Woo[edit]

The Green Party seems to be fascinated with nature woo. Examples include:

• Their platform states opposition to modern medicine and education in favor of the "Great School" (nature, of course) and the "Great Hospital" (once again, nature)^[29]
• Support for publicly funded homeopathy^[30] and alternative medicine (dialed back in recent years)
• Opposition (in their Canadian incarnation) to water fluoridation^[31]

Stein has also called for "a moratorium on GMOs and pesticides until they are proven safe",^[32] and said of GMO producers: "these guys are corporate criminals, they’re climate criminals, and they are food criminals, and they ought to be in jail".^[33] Stein has also promoted the idea that wifi signals harm the brains of children.^[34]

Healthcare policy: A comparison[edit]

Old:^[35]

Greens support a wide range of health care services, not just traditional medicine, which too often emphasizes "a medical arms race" that relies upon high-tech intervention, surgical techniques and costly pharmaceuticals. Chronic conditions are often best cured by alternative medicine. We support the teaching, funding and practice of holistic health approaches and, as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and other healing approaches.

New:^[36]

The Green Party supports a wide range of health care services, including conventional medicine, as well as the teaching, funding and practice of complementary, integrative and licensed alternative health care approaches.

Nuclear Power[edit]

A strange quirk of pretty much every Green party is that, despite being "green", they are among the most ferocious opponents of nuclear power,^[37] despite the science behind it.^[38] Theories for this opposition vary - conservatives tend to allege that this shows they are not really concerned about the environment but are simply watermelons - i.e. ex-Marxists seeking a new cover. A more pragmatic explanation is simply that the Green community tends to be out of touch with science, as seen above.^[39] Fortunately, some of them seem to be coming around to the benefits of nuclear power, with the Finnish Greens leading the way.^[40]

GPUSA vs other American left-wing organizations[edit]

The GPUSA and Socialist Party USA hold a close bond at the national level nowadays (note: not usually the local level). In 2020, the Green Party ran the same nominee as the Socialist Party USA's nominee: Howie Hawkins. The VP nominee, Angela Walker, was also the VP nominee of SPUSA's 2016 ticket.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is another American left-wing organization, but it has often choosen to ally itself with Democrats and run as Democrats. Unlike the DSA, Green Party members are allowed, at national conventions, to clap, whoop, cheer.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]