At one point I was attracted to the Greens for just the reason given by
LP, that they challenge the two party system. However, having gotten to
know them, it is clear that their challenge is not a class-based
challenge, and that they view a class-based challenge with antipathy.
Thus, in my opinion, they are ripe for a capitalist takeover any time
the capitalists find it to their advantage.
WRT DSA (why this is relevant I do not know) I have never found any
warmth or enthusiasm for Clinton, especially lately. The DSAers who
like realignment currently note the great damage Clinton has done to the
Dem. Party in Congress, the state governorships, and state legislatures.
They them spit him out.
Dave
PS. Sorry about posting the original to the list several times. I kept
getting back messages that it had been rejected as too long.
> ----------
> From: Louis Proyect[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 11:47 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Red & Green
>
> D_Richardson wrote:
> >Before we assume that the environmentalists present a viable arena,
> we
> >should be aware that, at least in the leadership, they have been
> >acquainted with socialism and have found it distasteful. The
> following
> >is from Sam Smith, local DC curmudgeon, national Green Party figure,
> and
> >(I had thought) one of the more important local progressive
> naysayers.
> >I am forwarding this piece because it is so reprehensible: it says a
> lot
> >of what is wrong with Smith and the Greens.
>
> The value of the Green Party is that it represents a challenge to the
> 2-party system. Recent successes in New Mexico indicate that the
> stranglehold might be broken for the first time in decades.
>
> DSA'ers might resent the Green Party challenge because it goes against
> their strategy of realignment, in other words making the Democratic
> Party a
> social democratic institution like the British Labor Party or the NDP.
> The
> defense of this strategy is often couched in Marxist orthodoxy.
>
> The Greens might just decide that such Marxist orthodoxy deployed on
> behalf
> of Bill Clinton is nothing but hot air. In any case, the Green Party
> is one
> of the more hopeful signs in the American electoral arena despite the
> mixed
> bag of the Nader candidacy.
>
> Louis Proyect
>
>
>
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