In the summer of 2024, the Green Party will hold its
national convention and pick someone to be the party's presidential
nominee.
Until that happens, no one is the party's nominee -- though many YOUTUBERS continue to misreport this reality.
The 2024 Green Party presidential primaries and caucuses will be a series of electoral contests to elect delegates to the 2024 Green National Convention who will choose the Green Party's presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Major candidates include scholar Cornel West and party co-founder and leader Randy Toler.
Cornel West is not the party's nominee and YOUTUBERS need to stop lying.
In addition to the two people above, others may run for the nomination in the coming months.
What does the Green Party need?
A real candidate.
And
while Cornel's YOUTUBE supporters keep yacking, we think it's time to
introduce some real issues into what has been little more than endless
fluff.
Anyone wanting to be the party's presidential candidate should answer the following questions.
1) Why are you running?
2) The Green Party needs to build so what are you going to do to help build the party?
In 1996, Ralph Nader was the nominee and the party got 684,871 votes.
In 2000, Ralph Nader was again the nominee and got 2,882,955 votes
In 2004, David Cobb was the nominee and got 119,859 votes.
In 2008, Cynthia McKinney was the nominee and got 161,797 votes.
In 2012, Jill Stein was the nominee and got 469,627 votes.
In 2016, Jill Stein was again the nominee and got 1,457,218 votes.
In 2020, Howie Hawkins was the nominee and got 407,068 votes.
For anyone needing a comparison, in 2020 Joe Biden (the victor in the race) got 81,283,501 on the Democratic Party's ticket and Donald Trump got 74,223,975 on the Republican Party's ticket.
2000
was the party's highwater mark in terms of votes. It should have built
on 2000. Instead, in 2004 they went with known loser David Cobb and a
'safe state strategy' where they asked people in states where the
outcome was supposed to be not in question to vote for them. It was a losing strategy that destroyed the gains the Green Party had made in 2000.
The
candidacies of Ralph Nader and even that of the Green Party’s David
Cobb were seen as far too dangerous to support in the states that could
have actually put pressure on Kerry (i.e., swing states) to take on
issues we believed in. The strategy, endorsed by so many respected
activists and intellectuals on the left, including Noam Chomsky, Howard
Zinn, Medea Benjamin, Norman Solomon, to name just a few – was all about
expediting the process of removing Bush from office. Not issues.
Their
strategy was a miserable failure, however. The Democratic alternatives
were grossly inadequate. The Left asked absolutely nothing of Kerry, and
guess what? They got absolutely nothing in return. That’s what you get
when you give someone’s candidacy unconditional support, despite the
fact that the Democrats mirrored Bush on so many crucial issues – from
the economy to civil liberties to trade to foreign policy to the
environment. It was textbook lesser-evilism and it was a loser. The left
had succumbed to the plague of ABB [Anybody But Bush]. Their unconditional support made
Kerry worse and undermined everything the Left supposedly stood for. And
this is where I think we must be crystal clear as to what the costs of
expedient choices are, even if the benefits seem predominant. As I argue
in Left Out!, backing the lesser evil, like the majority of
liberals and lefties did in 2004, keeps the whole political pendulum in
the U.S. swinging to the right. It derails social movements, helps elect
the opposition, and undermines democracy. This backwards logic allows
the Democrats and Republicans to control the discourse of American
politics and silences any voices that may be calling for genuine change.
The
safe-state strategy destroyed the Green Party and it has still not been
able to again reach the number of voters it did in 2000.
As a candidate for the Green Party, will you promise to campaign for votes and not just for some votes?
The
Green Party cannot afford another safe state campaign. If you cannot
reject the safe state strategy, you should not be the party's candidate.
Building
the party is something that should take place before the election. And
it is something that should take place after the election.
Howie Hawkins is the only Green Party presidential candidate who, after the election, spent time trying to build the party.
Jill Stein galivanting around the globe may be building her name and media profile but it is not building the party.
Unlike Jill, Cynthia, David and Ralph, Howie has continued trying to build the
party. Since the 2020 election, he has regularly written columns on
Green topics, he has done at least one video a week on YOUTUBE focusing
on Green policies and issues.
If
you want to be the Green Party's presidential nominee for 2024, we want
to know what you will do after the election -- none of us believe a
Green will be elected president in the 2024 election -- to build the
party?
Or, like Jill Stein,
Cynthia McKinney, David Cobb and Ralph Nader, do you plan to just use
the nomination for your own vain glory? If that's the case, you need to
bow out immediately.
At
some point, the Green Party could be a viable national party. That is
not going to happen without serious work. If you're not pledging to
build the party and detailing how -- both before and after the 2024
election -- you do not need to be seeking the nomination.
"Nepo
Baby." It's a derogatory term. It's when someone is said to have
reached fame and success not via their own work or talent but because
they are the child of a famous parent. We are sick of the Green Party's
nepo candidates.
The
Green Party has existed for several decades now. There is no reason in
the world for the party to look outside for nominees. It is a slap in
the face of the rank and file to watch non-Greens (Cornel West, for
example) run for the nomination. Chasing celebrities does not build the
Green Party.
-- Ann of Ann's Mega Dub (Green); The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jess (Green), Ava, and C.I. of Third and The Common Ills; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty (Green) of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Ruth of Ruth's Report; Wally of The Daily Jot; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; and Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts .
