The Green Party unravels from within
CounterPunch details, using Oregon as an example, how the Green Party is self-destructing. The David Cobb nomination was so divisive that it is indeed questionable if the GP can continue as a national force. The ruptures are everywhere.
Did Oregon Green (and Cobb supporter) Teresa Keane switch the race she is running in to allow the Democrat to win, ignoring Green Party rules in the process?
Did Medea Benjamin take money from George Soros to pay for plane tickets to the convention for many pro-Cobb delegates?
And at the convention itself.
Co-chair of the National Party Jody “Haug was one of the worst. She and her cronies who sat on the Rules Committee at the convention actually passed a resolution that refused to allow motions from the floor. No kidding. The Republicans still allow motions from the floor. They just didn’t want Nader friendly delegates to have a voice. It was blatantly undemocratic. And now we are left with David Cobb, who is a safe-state strategy himself, as he is unknown wherever he goes.”
I wish the following wasn’t true. I fear it is.
The Green Party is splitting in Oregon. The Teresa Keane saga is just one of many we will see unfold within the Green Party over the next few months. You can bet on it. As more whistleblowers come forward and expose the internal mayhem of the Greens, we may see some dramatic shifts in the way progressives view the vitality of the party.
So this is how the Green Party functions at the state level. One can only imagine what they are capable of at the national. If the rumors turn out to be true, and Medea Benjamin did in fact use Soros money to fly Cobb delegates to the party’s national convention in Milwaukee last July, the Greens will never again be trusted as the standard bearer of progressive causes. Or maybe they have lost that title already. Either way, it is clear that the Greens are unraveling from within.
Although I’m not active in Green politics any more, based on the listservs and talking with Green activists, I see the same, probably irreparable, ruptures happening among California Greens too.