Why doesn't anyone talk about Cynthia McKinney?

COMMENTS:

 brenden said: I think we’re not hearing about her because she won’t be the official nominee until the Green Party Convention in a couple of weeks. Right now the Green’s website lists four nominees. I also think we’re not hearing about he because she’s not relying on the support of any large, grassroots base.

Do we want our third/fourth/fifth parties to start at the top? The Greens who have been elected are mostly in School Board and Auditor-scale positions. Some Mayors. Why jump to the highest office in the land? To grab headlines? McKinney has spent much of her time since leaving the House campaigning with Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan, while a heroic woman, made headlines for camping out by herself, not committing herself to the unglamorous and tedious work of collective organizing.

Tim, when we interviewed Tivoli Mayor Molinaro together, he said party distinctions matter the least at the town/city/local level. Do you agree? Why don’t we devote time and resources to smaller elections that could mobilize neighborhood networks, challenge the two-party lock where party platforms matter the least, and (gasp!) actually put people in office.

From the Working Families Party mission statement:
“Our organizing strategy is to start local, think long-term, combine campaign work with organizing and education, and not waste supporters' votes.”

McKinney herself started at the local, Georgia state house. Should the Green party not start there, too?  


 Tim said: I am confused a bit. Party distinctions matter the least at the local level...could they matter the most at a national level?

Neighborhood organizing and skill-sharing is arguably the most crucial work to be done in the light of the endgame. However, having a non-breakneck-speed pro-growth candidate in the public eye could be so good for Americans. And make the transition to a new way of living a little less brutal.

It doesn't matter that McKinney spent time with Sheehan. Guilt by association with non-organizers would mark everyone in this country as counter-revolutionary.

The Green Party can't win a national election. It is my thought, however, that given the current state of the world, anything to push an agenda of ecocentrism into the fore of American politics is a good thing. Barack Obama could be elected and (not likely) change some international trade shit. Cool, but species are still disappearing at 1000 times the historic extintion rate.

McKinney could get elected and stir up lots of shit, but there is still enough carbon in the atmosphere to (starting THIS SUMMER) create the possibility of a completely ice-free arctic for summers (50/50 shot for this year, says NSIDC). She would still seem to have a better skill set than any of these other jokers to get people thinking in a direction of conservtion, intense self sacrifice, and ecocentrism.

Shit's fucked. Good people are really bad to good people, and sometimes that prevents me from indulging in hope on the larger scale.

I wish I was taken by Obama like so many others. I'm not. I have felt so dirty since voting for Kerry in PA four years ago and I don't feel like attaching my name or sentiments to another democrat I will regret voting for as they inevitably make huge compromises in the face of the apocalypse.  


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