(The Green Party: radically progressive–yet literally re-volutionary and … not so far from the mainstream after all! This piece highlights what may well be the key to turning the Green movement into a national movement) – promoted by michael horan)

     Over the past several years, we’ve come to a place in our national political debate where a handful of issues have dominated the conversation over and over. Of these, there is one that most intrigues me: which party can lay true claim to upholding that most important of pillars of our culture: true American values. Republicans time and time again cry out about how they embody these values, how their brethren are that most patriotic of citizen, as American as apple pie, baseball, and the 4th of July. Democrats, for their part, barely ever enter the fray to claim that they hold American values dear, and instead spend most of their time attacking Republicans. I’d like to put forth that neither of these parties best represents the American values we hold so dear. Instead, I truly believe it is the Green Party that most closely matches the ideals and aspirations of the American people.

     Let’s start with a classically American image. Think of a small town where everybody knows each other, where people shop at corner stores, and where the whole town gets together every once in a while to have fun. Though this image is usually evoked nostalgically as we wistfully remember something we feel we’ve lost, if we took a longer look at the current state of American towns and cities, we find evidence of an aggressive campaign to bring that kind of community back into the mainstream. We often use the term “Main Street” as a metaphor rather than to describe a real place, but places like those that we yearn for really do exist. Everyone can think of a town with a viable and active “Main Street”. Here in New England, I can think of several: Salem, Portsmouth, Brookline, or Northampton, to name a few. In fact, we pride ourselves on these towns; they make up so much of what it is to be New England. These places are more often than not filled with stores and restaurants started by people living in these towns. They help keep more money local, which in turn drives the local economy to the benefit of the community as whole. Even beyond these examples, there are often networks of great people providing invaluable services to the local community in towns like these. Local banks help people get mortgages and save their money for the future, local newspapers tell us what’s going on in our communities, and farmers markets bring us specialties from local farmers and bakers that we might not otherwise have access to. This is what we think of when we think of Main Street or small-town America, and this is an economic model that Greens truly hold dear. It’s to them these establishments mean the most in the economy, and whose survival is at the heart of many of their policies. They fight for policies that help grow, protect, and enrich local communities so that people can live, and continue living, in real, small-town America.

    Another value that is so inherent to our society that its sentiment is expressed at the base of the Statue of Liberty is that America is a place where all people are welcome to come and make their home, regardless of creed, religion, or provenance. And yet there are groups of people who have always had to fight for their right to be recognized as equal citizens of this country. Whether it was women fighting for their right to vote, African-Americans fighting to be held equal to Whites in the eyes of the law and society, or gays and lesbians fighting for the rights that heterosexuals take for granted, there has always been a foe wanting to silence and defeat them. Throughout my eduction concerning politics, it has always been apparent that it was the Green Party that stands up for those that other parties are wiling to pass over, ignore, or even try to stamp out the voices of. The current debates over whether or not to allow gay marriage and whether or not to keep the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in place are perfect examples of current-day struggles of groups in our country. It’s issues like this that emphasize how we still need a party that’s going to fight for those in need of a voice.

    The final value I’d like to write about today is something that’s quintessential to both American and Green thought alike, which is the issue of environmental protection. Consider that the United States was the first country in the world to institute a national parks system. Today we can visit monuments and treasures such as Yosemite National Park and the Grand Canyon that millions of Americans enjoy each year and consider to be true national treasures, almost synonymous with America itself. And yet these treasures were not easy to come by. It was only through the hard work and dedication of people like John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt that we can enjoy them today. They fought against those who wanted to use up the resources of these lands for their own commercial gain, those willing to destroy a place for monetary gain to the detriment of future generations, in order to protect these places for the generations to come after them. We now have a national park system that is the envy of many nations, but the work is hardly finished. The most controversial issues of our day require us to once again fight for the sanctity of our land, whether it be against drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, keeping our forests safe from over-logging, or simply setting aside open space in our communities so our children can play Baseball, our shared national past-time.

    When it comes down to it, we shouldn’t lament the loss and corruption of American values. We should ask ourselves how we can keep uphold them in our daily lives, how we can continue the wonderful traditions that the founders of this country put into place so that we may be a happy and thriving people. And when you look deeply at the current state of politics, it becomes evident that only one group of people is really fighting for those values with all that they have, and that is the Green Party.