POLLS: The U.S. Green Majority Welcomes Recovering Leftists and Rightists, More Confirmation

Some interesting statistics mentioned in this article by Molly Ivins, who at last I think is beginning to see that the Democratic party is indeed as much the enemy of sustainability and all that is good as much as the crypto-fascist neocons. Keeping in mind the points of the bioregional state--that only formal institutional changes are going to bring about a democracy reality to the United States (or any other country of the world...), my counter opinion to Ivins would be that the difficulty is far more than simply the informal party being a gatekeeper instead of a representative instituion in most democracies. Instead, most voters require getting over their crippling addiction to the Democratic Party (and the increasingly non-Republican Party for that matter--and the whole delimiting two party system for that matter), and grow different ones. This is only possible through various suggestions aired in the book Toward a Bioregional State which would bring additional checks and balances to bear on current informal political power capabilities to gatekeep against voter feedback in the many issues mentioned below.

These issues show clear majorities favoring such things. Inversely, they show at the same moment how much existing parties are meaningless and without a really democratic-majoritarian voter base. They gang up and gatekeep against that green majoritarian American instead of represent it.

Certain suggestions aired in the bioregional state book would allow for formal architectural changes to bring about a mimimum of a durable four party system since the more voter choices, the more sustainability, and the more democracy, and the less capacity to gatekeep against the people's will as a larger whole. Only durable third and fourth parties as voter choices can 'guard the guards,' so to speak.

Other suggested mechanisms would be a voting framework of "proportional representation with a majoritarian allotment" clause which would keep parties from conspiring to only talk to a partial electorate, and force them all to appeal to the full electorate. Under "PRMA" (proportional representation with a majoritarian allotment), interparty dynamics would assure that party competition ratchets for the full 100% of the electorate, instead of competitng for the same partial electorate. There's a much fuller treatment in the book. However, the point is that full and actual representation requires nothing to be taken away--only additional checks and balances on the increasingly undemocratic Republican and Democratic parties in power (through mostly vote fraud), and through that vote fraud, their ecological tyranny they keep over us all.

I think Ivins is finding out what I found out long ago: the empty Dems will continue to support the crypto-fascist Republicans in power more than any tempting real majority vote base. That really is the only explanation. Dems agree to remain silent on vote fraud and a whole lot else that the neocons are promoting, and thus they join hands with those who are perpetuating an ecological tyranny over us all--whether that tyranny shows up in poor health, poor environmental conditions, or in a self-destructing economy that fails to plan for the future as the Dems and Republicans are doing.

Perhaps Americans are really growing up: most voters are taking the training wheels of the Democratic and Republican parties off their bike.

Some of the interesting statistics she mentions before her article:

1. The majority of the American people think the war in Iraq is a mistake and we should get out.

2. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it.

3. The majority (86 percent) favor raising the minimum wage. The majority (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich.

4. The majority (66 percent) want to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

5. The majority (77 percent) think we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

6. The majority (87 percent) think big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. Whom are you afraid of? [Earth to Molly Ivins: these stats are exactly what the planetary destructors are afraid of: that is why Dem-corporatists support the crypto-fascist neocon agenda.]

Welcome to the Green Majority. And to you voters out there: here's to a spelendid recovery from your previous addictions if you still have them.


MOLLY IVIN'S ARTICLE BELOW



Opinion
My opinion Molly Ivins : Demos need to grow spine
My opinion Molly Ivins


Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.21.2006

I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president. Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation.

Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long time unlearning, so now I have to relearn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people think the war in Iraq is a mistake and we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) favor raising the minimum wage. The majority (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) want to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) think we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

The majority (87 percent) think big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. Whom are you afraid of?

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First, you have to win elections"). Can't you even read the damn polls?

Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, "There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."

Oh come on, people — get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war — from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to own the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.

Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. That is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who's ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds because they were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The minute someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.

Contact Molly Ivins, a nationally syndicated columnist, through Creators Syndicate, info@creators.com.

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