Jimmy Dore Show: Here’s Why Cornel West Switched To Green Party In Presidential Campaign

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[–]ageingrockstar 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

I'm an environmentalist. It's one of the few -isms I subscribe to because it's obvious to me that that the health of our natural environment and our urban environment is existentially important.

But while environmentalism is so important to me, I am not a supporter of 'Green' politics. I think it's a fraud and I think all Green parties, however 'pure' they might start out, are destined to quite quickly follow a path down to degeneracy, into support for crap like gender ideology and for warmongering (I give you the German Greens).

So, disclaimer, I don't actually don't know who Cornel West is and I haven't watched the interview because while I follow US politics somewhat, as a non US American this didn't clear the interest bar for me. But I'm commenting because I feel that any politician choosing to join a Green party is making a big mistake.

[–]SusanJ 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

The Green Party of the United States is quite different than Green Parties elsewhere in the world. We are a party of peace and have numerous statements advocating for peace in Ukraine and the end to proxy wars between nuclear powers.

[–]ageingrockstar 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

We are a party of peace and have numerous statements advocating for peace in Ukraine and the end to proxy wars between nuclear powers.

I'm pleased to hear this and congratulate everyone who made those statements for peace.

However you should be aware that the German Greens, one of the oldest Green parties in the world (perhaps the oldest?), also started as a strongly pacifist party. And look at it now, they are the most aggressive supporters of NATO's proxy war on Ukraine across the political landscape in Germany. The pacifist old-guard got purged. How will you avoid that fate? I doubt that you will, sadly, because 'Green politics' is not a coherent political philosophy (while environmentalism is), and thus any Green party is ripe for being infiltrated and taken over.

[–]SusanJ 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

We are aware and we vehemently disagree with the German Greens.

Any organization can be taken over, but it's harder when it's grassroots. Our volunteers are quite outspoken about wanting peace. And other things that Europeans take for granted, like single payer health insurance, not going bankrupt because of getting sick or for wanting an education, etc.

[–]ageingrockstar 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

but it's harder when it's grassroots

True. But it also makes for a more fractious party that many hard-headed political operators would suggest makes it harder to win and retain power.

But my main point is that I still think that Green politics lacks an underlying coherent political philosophy and this gives any Green party many large cracks that can, and I think will, eventually break it apart. For instance the example you give of 'single payer health insurance' is not necessarily coherent with environmentalism (while a good argument can be made for an anti expansionary war position being coherent).

I think a coherent political philosophy could have been built, ground up, from environmentalism. And I think environmentalism would have served as a very solid basis for such a philosophy. But Green politics hasn't gone down this road, instead it's brought in lots of other 'causes' without properly tying them together into a coherent frame-work. And I think that will be its undoing.

[–]SusanJ 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir

[–]ageingrockstar 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I have my hippyish / mystic side too and the general interconnectedness of the universe can be a profound topic to dwell on, in the right context.

But throwing out a quote like that as some sort of pretence for intellectual coherence in your platform is laughable, and again, shows the weakness of Green politics as a philosophy. It's a grab-bag of things and after looking through your platform, while there would be some parts that I would be glad to have the party's support on, there are other parts that are highly problematic and that will lead to the ruination of the party.