(Cross-posted at Open Media Boston–join the discussion there!)

Jason, thanks much for this analysis. I don’t know whether Ross or Patrick’s people are reading this, but it’s clearly a hot-button for the Greens based on responses to date, and lord knows it’s refreshing to read something like this following the Rooney interview. In any case, I’m not revealing any secrets when I say that you’ve neatly captured many of the same discussions that go on, and will go on, within third parties across the county.

I won’t address all of the various pros and cons, but I think that by coupling these two campaigns the way you do, your question as to the validity of a campaign like this on the part of Greens takes on a new light based squarely on the (political) difference between these two candidates. I can’t speak for Grace Ross’s strategy, but let me put the question this way: where does a loss leave her and her supporters and her policies? Will the landscape have changed in any way? Maybe it will–but I’m at a loss as to what form that would take. Now, as to the GRP: at the risk of sounding like a political naif, we are, actually, in this thing to win. It’s not symbolic. I don’t have time for symbolic. However, on the off-chance that Dr. Stein does not win–the landscape will have changed. It’s happening as I write, and it’s really something to be a part of.

And, maybe paradoxically, it’s also a step on the way to achieving the goals that you, and I suspect most us, would agree is downright essential part of a third-party electoral program: going after lower hanging fruit. Well: an overabundance of enthusiastic, qualified candidates isn’t exactly one of the GRP’s problems. How to motivate folks to run? Maybe: give them the opportunity to be part of something bigger, provide an example, and show of flash of strength. But like Eli said, below, it’s not an either/or situation–the GRP won’t be robbing Peter to pay Paul in working on Jill’s behalf; we do in fact have the energies needed to support any and all candidates who wish to run under the GRP aegis.

I’m not knocking Grace and her supporters, by the way–like I said, I’m just not sure what the strategic end of her campaign is. I do know the moral value of her running, though, and I salute her for carrying the standard into the lions’ den. I’m sure she too feels as though she’s in to win. And I’d love to see her beat Patrick, and after her nomination, she and her GRP opponent “going at it.” The left should have such problems! Imagine it: Stein and Ross quibbling over specific policies–but taking certain very fundamental assumptions for granted, values shared, presumably, by most of your readers. And progressives would have the chance to determine which candidate was the Better of the Good, rather than the Lesser of the Evils.

*sigh*

(I don’t see the Stein or Ross campaigns doing each other any damage. Unless of course Grace were to eventually run as an independent following the convention, which does not seem likely, and, in any case, she seems to have found a home within the Democratic machine).

But assuming that that little fantasy doesn’t play out, and that the Governor’s chair goes to Patrick or Baker, the Greens will have re-energized their base, added to their rolls, and extended their reach. A gubernatorial effort can do that–it already is–in ways that legislative races won’t, not on the scale and in the direction I mean. That’s an undeniable plus. Electoral campaigns pull people together, provide a buzz, cohere. And state campaigns allow EVERYONE in the state to participate at one time and in some ongoing manner– a huge plus. Of course, part of all that is that campaigns are intense and ephemeral (unlike long term advocacy campaigns), and the danger is that come Nov 3, as you suggest, the energy dissipates and the party returns to dormancy. It’s up to activists in the party to ensure that we maintain a degree of momentum. But we gotta get sexy before we can stay sexy.

Yes, the right will probably enjoy the spectacle. And the media will treat it as, you say, a sideshow. Those of us supporting Jill Stein know very well that it’s up to us to move the show into the main tent. Same with Ross’ folks. I hope we both succeed.

It depresses me a tad to hear that you fear that these contests could have the effect of setting back the left. I truly hope that doesn’t happen–but in any case, I don’t see it. As for the possibility of governing, I wouldn’t expect a Green or indie candidate to have any more–or less–trouble with the General Court than a newly inaugurated Gov from either of the two mainstream parties.

[On Open Media Boston] Peopleunite points out that the GRP is very firmly focused on the state of Massachusetts. Yes. And I think that’s germane. The main concern of the electorate is not with targeted assassinations–it’s with jobs, healthcare, education, transportation, and taxes. Which happen to be, by and large, state issues. Frankly, I think third-parties shoot themselves in the foot when they make too many grandiose pronouncements about, for example, foreign affairs. Whether we like to admit it or not, an official statement from the GRP on the situation in Yemen is not likely to have a jolting impact on US foreign policy. But Dr Stein, a recognized authority on health care, speaking about the same across the state? A hah! (And I’m guessing that some of Grace’s thoughts on economics will provoke more than a little interest here and there as well). I say this with all due respect–I know that your party has different priorities and strategies.

Which leads me to this: “…And that they will really need other left partisans to win lots of other offices and build a political block capable of taking power in the Commonwealth, and joining with similar efforts around the country to ultimately take national power.”

Amen. I REALLY want whose views leave them largely disefranchised by the mainstream parties and powers-that-be to consider–in addition to all their other activities–to consider joining with the Stein campaign. There’s an opportunity here for the kind of unity the left rarely displays, the kind that doesn’t warrant selling out your own principles or withdrawing from your own party –i.e, it doesn’t mean joining the GRP (though I hope you will…)–in fact, various socialist parties could likely peel away a few GRP members. But a campaign like Stein’s transcends party politics; and so, just as we all come together and work together in, for example, our antiwar efforts, I’d love to see every progressive-to-radical movement in the state, from disgruntled Democrats to the BAAM people, throwing their weight behind an electoral campaign whose ultimate goals may not pass their purity tests, but who recognize that on the political level, Jill Stein’s platform IS largely representative of their own aspirations.

Thanks again for hosting this discussion. And for all of the very valid arguments you brought up in so balanced a way. As I suggested in introducing this piece on GMG, the fact that alterna media has become as smart and professional as it on these pages suggests to me that alterna political parties can as well. The governor’s race is a hell of a cauldron in which to test that theory, … but we’re game.