Dear Internet,
My name is William Roberts Soland, but I like to call myself the Green Bandit. This webpage you're reading right now is my attempt at keeping track of the news and politics of our times. I find that I have become more and more interested in politics and current events with each passing year, and I'm hoping that anyone reading this blog also has a keen interest in the world around us. I look forward to sharing my reactions to the world around us.
2006 is off to an interesting start. On January 1, I changed my voter registration from Democrat to Green. My reasons for doing so would probably give you a better understanding of my political philosophies than anything else I could post here today.
First, I don't have anything against Democrats winning elections. I understand that many people view voting for or joining a third party as a way of sabotaging the most closely associated major party. I understand this viewpoint, but I don't entirely buy it. I voted Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004, but I don't blame Nader for George W. Bush. I blame Gore and Kerry. I believe that many people, like me, leave major parties because they feel the politicians associated with those parties refuse to take strong enough stances on certain issues. Kerry could probably have picked up a significant number of Green voters as well as some moderates if he had simply shown himself to have a stronger stance on the Iraq war. He needed to differentiate himself from Bush on that issue more than any other, and while he may have had a plan, he didn't do enough to let the American voters know what that plan was. Anti-war Republicans voted for Bush because they thought both candidates would screw up the war. Anti-war Greens and Independents cast their votes elsewhere because they felt the same. Similarly, Al Gore could have picked up more votes by being more aggressive on environmental issues. His explanation for not doing so (go see "An Inconvenient Truth," if you haven't -- he discusses it there) made him appear unwilling to take on even a strawman argument on the issue.
I will certainly continue to vote Democrat in many races, especially if there is no Green, or if the Green candidate just isn't viable. I vote for the candidate, not the party. I do think party membership means something, however. I think that, by staying a registered Democrat, I was endorsing even those parts of the Democratic agenda that have moved away from core progressive values, or were really progressive to begin with. I think that the Democrats, though they are more willing to regulate corporations than Republicans, are much too willing to let corporations run America. They are much too willing to play political games. I know that one person leaving the Democrats is like one pebble falling off the San Francisco Peaks, but I want the Democrats to wonder where the voters are going, and why. I want them to stretch and look for ways to include more progressive, anti-corporate, pro-civil liberty, pro-environment, anti-war policies.
My final reason for leaving the Democrats is that I want to have a say in where my local politics go. I will rarely be able to make a big stink in even local Democratic decisions, but in the Green party, which is still growing all over the country, one person can make a bigger difference. I see a small party, not yet entangled in the political sound-bite driven establishment, as being more able to propose creative solutions to complex problems. The Democrat v. Republican debates tend to turn into "increase funding" v. "decrease funding" on many of the social programs that interest me. Rarely do you hear anyone saying that maybe the funding level isn't the big problem, maybe it's the way we're implementing the programs. I'm not sure I've heard the Greens talk much about this, but I get the feeling that if I went to a meeting of my local Green party, they'd give me enough time to say it. And when third parties speak, major parties listen carefully enough to co-opt their agenda and stay in power. I want to move the political discourse in my neighborhood, town, state, and country more towards the left, and joining a slightly more radical party seems to be my best bet.
I'm still and idealist at 25. Here's hoping I stay that way at 50.
Green Bandit Out.
Labels: Introduction
