(Vision and leadership are two different things, and I hope the Greens in the U.S. start to get that. – promoted by eli_beckerman)

Why, after 30 years, are German Greens finding success in regional elections? In a recent article in the Guardian newspaper, Cem Özdemir, one of the  party’s  co-chair has an interesting thesis: the Greens are increasingly recognized as grownups able to address the most pressing issues in a way other parties can not.

In the past, surveys show, people liked the Greens but didn’t vote for them because they feared the party wouldn’t have the brain and muscle to run the country. This perception has changed over the last few years.

Http://bit.ly/g8uSvZ

What has lead to that change in perception?

As greens gained experience in local offices in Germany,  they also gained a reputation for bottom-up grassroots politics, open and transparent government, and anti-cronyism.

Starting as a heterogeneous bunch of idealistic non-parliamentarians, they have become a solid parliamentary force and a responsible partner in government coalitions.

The other key, according to Özdemir, is that Germany now recognizes what Nicholas Stern has maintained, ” getting green will be costly, but not getting green will cause a collapse.” That is, that the Greens were being honest about challenges and were understood to be both genuine and insightful about solutions.

Interestingly, their economic and environmental thinking have converged in a way that recognizes environmental solutions can be economic ones as well. In  Özdemir’s words,

The German Greens realised early on that the economy is both the problem and the solution – and therefore can get green and grow. Stern, who led the UN review on the economics of climate change, the Nobel prizewinning economist Paul Krugman and others have made it clear that you must get green to grow – hence the German Greens’ call for a “Green New Deal” to transform the financial sector, economy, labour market and sustainability

This is not so different from the platform of the Massachusetts  statewide and local candidates this past November. But in  Özdemir’s analysis, it wasn’t enough that Greens would lead their country in the right direction. The voters needed to have confidence that the Greens could lead.