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On a Quest (and Tilting at Windmills)
Steven J Schmidt - SJS / Reflecting on the drafting of the founding platform of the U.S. Green Party
In the mid-1990s, a Zuma's 'Electronic' Cyber Cafe was an unlikely place for a writer to do what he called "serious writing". Yet there I was, a 'regular drop in' as the herbal barkeep called me who padded daily to a back room as rows of video games blasted from first-gen computer consoles. I'm thinking Doom had the loudest explosions, blasts and sound effects, but the cacophony of multiple shooter games added up to an ongoing killer din. Personally I thought the contrast between the war games and the peace and prosperity Green politics platform I was writing in my hourly rented Cafe back room was ironically appropriate. After all, up the hill above from my home base there on Montezuma Avenue in the city of 'holy faith of St Francis', was the city of the 'Birthplace of the Bomb', Los Alamos, the U.S. National Lab that continues at the center of nuclear weapons development worldwide.
It should be noted here that the worldwide Green Party (now in over a hundred countries) started making its mark known in Europe as an anti-nuke peace party, and in many nations subsequently as an environmental party that was unique in confronting existential threats, real threats that we saw facing humanity and on the horizon, escalating threats that were strategic demands. I was on a mission to draft a future-looking political party platform. I could see it, the vision of what could be and the words were coming off my fingertips. I was envisioning the formation of a 'serious, credible, platform-based' national political party that could and would interact with Democrats and Republicans and deliver an independent, on-the-merits push for real political change, serious change. Zuma's Cyber Cafe energy and energy drinks upped my feeling that much was possible.
- Steve Schmidt, New Mexico Lt. Governor candidate, 1994
Earlier, a New Mexico Green Party platform that I had worked up for a 1994 campaign turned the NM Green Party into a "major party with ballot standing" and now a strategic plan followed and became a model for a new national political platform and party. I worked for many months leading up to a 1996 Green convention in LA and then many more months leading up to a large convention in Denver where the "official platform" was voted to be the U.S. Green Party Platform and at the center of a new application to the Federal Election Commission, which approved the legal standing of the new U.S. Green Party and national committee.
Looking back at Zuma's, I would add one note. The Santa Fe Institute in its pioneering work to study interconnections in systems proved profoundly valuable, as I worked to put forward new Green ideas bringing together politics, science, key values and sustainability strategies.
- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Green_Party / * https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Green_Party
- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Green_Values / * https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Green_Platform
- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Green_Politics / * https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Going_Green
More re: Green Party history
US Green Party Founding Platform
US Green Party National Platform - Official National Platform
Approved in 2000 / National Green Party Convention / Denver, CO
http://gpus.org/committees/platform-committee/2000-platform/
Green Party US / Founding Platform / 2000 / PDF
"The Green Platform hands down is the most thorough, justice-saturated platform of any political party platform of the day. Reminds me of some of the great platforms of many decades ago when parties -- at least one -- stood tall for the working people of this country." (Ralph Nader: July 2000 at the Green Party national convention)
"You must know that you were responsible for all this. All I did was accept.... Most of the issues and the subjects that the Green Party is adhering to are majoritarian positions in the United States of America and this is what commended the Green Party so much to those of us who were not in on the founding is that if you look very carefully at the Green Party platform, that's being proposed for your approval, this is by far the most comprehensive, broad-based platform that deals with the wide-range of systemic justice that's needed in this country. From the political to the corporate, to the cultural, to the civil liberties, civil rights, of any platform in the country." (August 1996 Green Party nomination acceptance speech)
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The Ten Key Values of the Green Party of the US_'the KVs' of Founding Platform approved in Denver, CO, 2000
The U.S. Green Party "Ten Key Values"
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The beginning of the Green Party in the US was convoluted and an extraordinary challenge...
A 'duopoly', a dominant two-party system is a multi-state obstruction to ballot access. Electoral laws in the U.S. act as barriers to independent parties and alternative policy.
The political challenge in the U.S. continues as Greens and green-policy advocates face rapidly multiplying global environmental security challenges, risks and threats...
File:Early-History-of-the-US-Green-Party-by-JR.pdf
File:2000GreenPartyPlatform.pdf
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