Authored by Ryan Honeyman
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I recently switched political party affiliations from Democrats to the Green Party.
I think many people actually support the policy positions of the Green Party, they just don't vote for them because they think it is a wasted vote. I get it--I was one of those people who was skeptical. Until the dumpster fire that is Donald J Trump.
I am not convinced that it is working to constantly choose the lesser of two evils (e.g., voting for Dems), rather than support folks who actually want to build the Next Economy.
(I'll admit that I am much more excited about Democrats now that more women of color like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley are involved.)
Even with recent progress from the Dems, I see some pretty massive policy differences. For example, the Green Party believes:
"Our defense budget has increased out of all proportion to any military threat to the US, and to our domestic needs.
The government must reduce our defense budget to half of its current size."
No Democrat would say that.
Here is another one from the Green Party Platform:
"The community of people of African ancestry whose families were held in chattel slavery in what is now the USA have legitimate claims to reparations including monetary compensation for centuries of human rights violations."
The Dems are hedging on reparations (and these are the primaries where everyone is trying to out-left each other).
The Green Party also supports worker co-ops, democratic decision making, and a decentralized economic system that will empower local communities.
That is the economic system I advocate for in my professional career at LIFT Economy. Why not align that with my voting?
I'm not saying the Greens are perfect. It's a very white organization. I need to see much, much, much more people of color involved. The Green Party should be led by people of color and center people of color in every aspect of their organizing / policy positions to get my full throated support.
Here is a link to the #GreenParty platform: https://www.gp.org/platform
My question to you is:
What do you think about Democrats vs Greens? Am I BSing myself? Are you having this same internal struggle?