Recently, a friend tried to interest me in the Green Party, and urged me to attend an upcoming convention in Washington. This startled me a bit, as I make no secret of my political views, which I think are not especially compatible with either the Green Party, nor with the views of most members of that party.

But I do try to keep an open mind about everything, so I decided to do a little research. After all, I regularly test my libertarian compatibility; why not find out just how much of a match there is between Eric Scheie and the Green Party?

The first factoid to hit me in the face was that as of August 2005, there are at least 224 Greens holding elected office in the United States: in 27 states and the District of Columbia.

Geez. How do you suppose that compares to the Libertarian Party? Here's a Wikipedia entry:

Following the 2002 elections, more than 300 Libertarians held elected state and local offices; following the 2004 elections, at least 221 Greens hold elected office. Though twelve Libertarians have previously been elected to state legislatures, none hold that office currently, unlike the Greens (one in Maine), the Independence Party (one in Minnesota), the Progressive Party (six in Vermont), the Republican Moderate Party (one in Alaska), and the Working Families Party (one in New York). Some Libertarian candidates for state office have performed relatively strongly in statewide races.

Interestingly enough, the two parties teamed up to demand a recount of Ohio votes in the last presidential election. (I suspect that the Greens have caused more headaches for Democrats than the Libertarian Party for Republicans.)

But I'm not a formal member of the Libertarian Party as I'm not much of a joiner and I don't agree with them on everything. I suspect I agree with the Greens on less.

Believe it or not, there has actually been a debate between these two philosophies, (in which Libertarian Mike Kole debated Green Natalie Davis) which is posted at BlogCritics.org. There was a surprising amount of agreement (on things like drug legalization and the Iraq War, although Kole supported the Afghanistan War), but the disagreement over economics ran head-on into profoundly, insurmountably, different philosophies:

Natalie Davis: Which takes us back to the point discussed earlier -- too many people are unwilling to do (what some consider to be) the right thing. Greed is the prevailing American ideal.

Mike Kole: Greed is not defined by the desire to preserve an income one has earned. Greed is defined by the desire to take an unearned income from one who has earned it.

Moderator: perhaps a new question - maybe something we all can agree on - any more to add on this?

Natalie Davis: Depends on who is doing the defining, Mike.

Mike Kole: back to that sticky 'common good' fallacy

Moderator: I know there is more, but we have to stop somewhere - consensus anyone?

Mike Kole: sure- move on

Natalie Davis: We agree to disagree.

Conspicuously absent in the interview was an airing of the differences between these two parties on environmentalism. (A difference I suspect would be major and irreconcilable.)

So what the hell is the Green Party platform, anyway?

The best encapsulation I could find was -- guess what? -- the official Green Party USA Platform. I'll start with part of the Preamble:

Green politics is an ecological approach to politics that links social and ecological problems. Ecology studies the relationships among organisms and their environment. Political ecology brings human institutions and ideologies into this holistic perspective.

We find that the same institutions and ideas that cause the exploitation and oppression of humans also cause the degradation and destruction of the environment. Both are rooted in a hierarchical, exploitative, and alienated social system that systematically produces human oppression and ecological destruction.

For the Greens, therefore, the fights against racism, sexism, class exploitation, bureaucratic domination, war, and all other forms of social domination and violence are central to the movement for an ecologically sustainable society. In order to harmonize society with nature, we must harmonize human with human.

The Greens carry forward the traditional values of the Left: freedom, equality, and solidarity. We want to create a truly democratic society without class exploitation or social domination. But Greens expand this notion of a classless, nonhierarchical society that is harmonized with itself to include an ecological society that is harmonized with nature as well.

EDITORIAL NOTE: For ease of reading this long, laborious post, all Green Party platform titles are colored green (as they are at the Party web site), and are addressed in the same order they appear -- with the exception of "Human Rights and Social Justice" -- left out because I am too callused to care, and so detest the phrase "social justice" that I deem it unworthy of serious discussion.)

Ahem.

The Green Party's official economic platform -- the Economic Bill Of Rights -- strikes me as little more than a call for a socialist welfare state:

An Economic Bill of Rights

* Universal Social Security: Taxable Basic Income Grants for all, structured into the progressive income tax, that guarantee an adequate income sufficient to maintain a modest standard of living. Start at $500/week ($26,000/year) for a family of four, with $62.50/week ($3,250/year) adjustments for more or fewer household members in 2000 and index to the cost of living.
* Jobs for All: A guaranteed right to job. Full employment through community-based public works and community service jobs programs, federally financed and community controlled.
* Living Wages: A family-supporting minimum wage. Start at $12.50 per hour in 2000 and index to the cost of living.
* 30-Hour Work Week: A 6-hour day with no cut in pay for the bottom 80% of the pay scale.
* Social Dividends: A "second paycheck" for workers enabling them to receive 40 hours pay for 30 hours work. Paid by the government out of progressive taxes so that social productivity gains are shared equitably.
* Universal Health Care: A single-payer National Health Program to provide free medical and dental care for all, with freedom of choice for consumers among both conventional and alternative health care providers, federally financed and controlled by democratically elected local boards.
* Free Child Care: Available voluntarily and free for all who need it, modeled after Head Start, federally financed, and community controlled.
* Lifelong Public Education: Free, quality public education from pre-school through graduate school at public institutions.
* Affordable Housing: Expand rental and home ownership assistance, fair housing enforcement, public housing, and capital grants to non-profit developers of affordable housing until all people can obtain decent housing at no more than 25% of their income. Democratic community control of publicly funded housing programs.

They have to take it from people who own it. That's unacceptable, and confiscatory -- unless you make the erroneous assumption that property is itself a form of theft. Which I don't.

It doesn't look like I'm ready to join. But I'll read on. Their proposal for "Grassroots Democracy" would appear to abolish the United States Constitution:

* Community Assemblies: Ground political representation in a foundation of participatory, direct democracy: a Community Assembly in every neighborhood, open to all of its residents, acting as a grassroots legislative body, with its own budget for local administration, and the power (in concert with other Citizens Assemblies who share a representative) to monitor, instruct, and recall representatives elected to municipal, state, and federal office.
* A Proportional, Single-Chamber US Congress: Abolish the disproportional, aristocratic US Senate. Create a single-chamber US Congress, elected by a system of mixed-member proportional representation that combines district representatives elected by preference voting and party representatives seated in proportion to each party's vote.

Similarly, the "Fair Elections" proposals (including Proportional Representation and dictating equal media access time) would require more messing with the Constitution, and I see no evidence that Proportional Representation would improve on what we have.

I'm not enamored with the Greens' "Ecological Conversion" plank either. A few examples:

"phase out and ban the production and release of synthetic chemicals"

"Shut down waste incinerators, phase out landfills, and phase in full recycling."

Shut down nuclear power plants.

Phase out fossil fuels and phase in clean renewable energy sources.

Reduce auto-based transportation and expand pedestrian, bicycle, and rail transportation.

Ban patents on life forms in order to preserve genetic diversity and common access to our common inheritance of nature, including farmers' access to seeds and breeds.

Ban the release into the environment and the use in food production of genetically modified organisms that result from splicing the genes of one species into another.

But there's more. Under "Sustainable Agriculture," is listed a proposal evocative of Maoist "land reform":

Create family farms and farm worker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements.

Break Up Corporate Agribusiness: Create family farms and farmworker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements.

Even more evocative of Communism (listed under "Economic Democracy")are the proposals to effectively expropriate large and small businesses in favor of "the people":

Democratic Conversion of Big Business: Mandatory break-up and conversion to democratic worker, consumer, and/or public ownership on a human scale of the largest 500 US industrial and commercial corporations that account for about 10% of employees, 50% of profits, 70% of sales, and 90% of manufacturing assets.

Democratic Conversion of Small and Medium Business: Financial and technical incentives and assistance for voluntary conversion of the 22.5 million small and medium non-farm businesses in the US to worker or consumer cooperatives or democratic public enterprises. Mandate that workers and the community have the first option to buy on preferential terms in cases of plant closures, the sale or merger of significant assets, or the revocation of corporate charters.

We'd be on the fast track to the Stone Age. (How the hell did I manage to get myself so mired in reading through -- much less analyzing -- this mess, anyway? I tried to start this day being fair minded, and I feel that I'm up to my neck in Communist quicksand.)

Well, as the saying goes, the only way out of a hole is to keep digging, right?

So it's onward and downward to Taxation (called "Progressive and Ecological Taxes"):

Enact a no-loopholes, graduated personal income tax with equal taxation of all income, regardless of source.

Fund Social Security, Health Care, Unemployment Insurance, and Workers Compensation out of progressive income and wealth taxes.

Build taxable Basic Income Grants into the progressive income tax structure to create a Universal Social Security system that ensures everyone has income for at least a modest standard of living above the poverty line.

Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income over ten times the minimum wage.

Enact a steeply progressive tax on net wealth over $2.5 million (the top 5% of households).

Replace the loophole-ridden estate tax with a no-loopholes, progressive inheritance tax on inheritances over $1 million.

I'm beginning to wonder whether my friend who asked me to come to the Green Convention was playing some sort of practical joke on me. (It's been known to happen, and I probably deserve it.) But there's nothing wrong with learning something, and today, I feel that I'm starting to know the Greens.

But I might as well finish what I started. Under "Criminal and Civil Justice Reforms" the Greens propose refocusing crime prevention efforts on rehabilitation, freeing "prisoners of racial injustice" (not defined) and political favorites:

Freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners of racial injustice. Clemency for Leonard Peltier. New trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Restorative Justice: Establish a humane criminal sanction system based on prevention, restitution, rehabilitation, and reconciliation rather than vengeance, forced labor, and profits for the Prison-Industrial Complex. Restore full funding for college degree granting programs in state and federal prisons. Jobs and justice, not more police and prisons.

Fight Corporate Crime: Strengthen laws and enforcement against corporate crime with penalties that include incarceration of executives and revocation of corporate charters.

The party's "Labor Law Reforms" would restructure labor laws, and establish a "right to freedom from discharge at will," thus completely transforming the voluntary nature of the employment contract into a state-mandated entitlement system, under which employers would be caretakers of all employees for life. (The idea must be to prevent private employment, for that would be the result.)

The "Revitalize Public Education" plank would abolish school vouchers and give far more money to the existing educational bureucracy, and would require:

"Federal financing of all public education" (this would include food and medical care for all children, at state expense)

"Federal legislation and financing for tuition free education at public universities and technical schools for everyone who wants it."

The goal of "Free, Diverse and Uncensored Media" looks appealing, but again, the Greens propose to accomplish that by applying state power:

"Create a vital, democratic, diverse media system, delinked from corporate profit objectives and able to present a wide range of issues and ideas in their full complexity, free from censorship by government or by private corporate power."

Regulate Public Airwaves in the Public Interest: Reassert the public's right as owners of the electromagnetic spectrum used as broadcast airwaves to regulate their use in the public interest. Re-appropriate 6 prime-time hours a day of commercial broadcast time on each station for real public service broadcasting: ad-free children's and news/public affairs programming. Fund this liberated time by charging commercial broadcasters rents for the bandwidths they use, a tax on sales of commercial stations, and a tax on advertising. Program this ad-free time under the control of artists' and educators for the children's programs and journalists for the news and public affairs programs. Restore the Fairness Doctrine. Free time for all candidates for public office. Prohibit paid political ads or require free ads of equal time for opponents. Redistribute substantial bandwidth concessions to public, nonprofit, and locally owned commercial stations, including low-power stations. Increase stakeholder representation on and public accountability of the Federal Communications Commission.

What about the First Amendment? Have they read it? Do they care?

Last but not least is "International Solidarity." Among other things, the Greens would make national self defense as we know it impossible. Near total disarmament, a 75% cut in the military budget, and a complete restructuring of United States foreign policy:

We call for a fundamental shift in US foreign policy, from supporting repressive regimes in the interests global corporations to supporting the pro-democracy labor, social, and environmental movements of the people.

* Support International, Multilateral Peacekeeping to Stop Aggression and Genocide
* No Unilateral US Intervention in the Internal Affairs of Other Countries
* Close All Overseas US Military Bases
* Disband NATO and All Aggressive Military Alliances
* Ban US Arms Exports
* Abolish the CIA, NSA, US Army School of the Americas, and All US Agencies of Covert Warfare
* End the Economic Blockades of Cuba, Iraq, and Yugoslavia
* Cut Off US Military Aid to Counter-Insurgency Wars in Colombia and Mexico
* Freedom for Lori Berenson and All Political Prisoners
* Require a National Referendum to Declare War

Of the United States as we know it. If the Greens get power.

Where do I not join?

UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments below, there's more than one Green Party. The newer one is called the Green Party of the United States, and it's platform is here. This is typical of far left factionalism, and I don't know when I'll have the time to get around to yet another platform.

Sigh.

Wikipedia has an entry on the split here.

MORE: The Platform of the Green Party of the United States is over 34,000 words long, and is divided into innumerable topics.

I'm sure it's well worth fisking whenever I can spare a month or two. . .

It's also worth noting that the ten values are substantially the same in both "parties."

MORE: While it's too large to address in its entirety, I've read through the platform of the Green Party of the United States. In general, it's more watered down, less strident in tone, and much, much longer. And it gets into details about things the Green Party USA neglects entirely, such as nanotechnology, which the Green Party of the United States wants to ban:

Nanotechnology - the science of manipulating matter at the molecular level - is poised to provide a new industrial revolution with vast social and environmental consequences. Like nuclear science and biotechnology, nanotechnology is being pursued largely outside of public debate, risking great harm and abuse in its use and application.

The Green Party calls for a halt to nanotechnology development until the following conditions are met:

11. Development of full and open public debate about the implications of nanotechnology and the fusion of nanotech with biological, materials and information sciences.

12. Development of democratic public control mechanisms which would regulate the direction of nanotechnology research and development.

13. Expanded research into the environmental and health consequences of exposure to nano-scale materials.

14. Development of technology to contain and monitor nano-scale materials, and.

15. Development of precautionary safety measures for the containment and control over nano-scale materials.

Will I join either party?

The answer isn't no; it's HELL NO!

And as Raging Bee reminded me, no one should forget that there's another, possibly even more important Green Party!

Seniority counts!

Platform here! You will read it!