A Little More Information (Part 2 of 2): The Green Party

This is the second of a two-part series of articles, in which I hope to help inform people regarding two of our third-party political organizations in the United States. In the first article, I wrote about the Libertarian Party. In this article, I will write about the Green Party. For the sake of comparison, I will address the same issues in this article as I did in the first one.

You've just read the beginning of my post...and here is the rest of it.

Quoting directly from the Green Party of the United States Platform 2004, “The Green Party of the United States is a federation of state Green Parties. Committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and grassroots organizing, Greens are renewing democracy without the support of corporate donors. Greens provide real solutions for real problems.”

Where the Libertarian Party is for downsizing the federal government and increasing personal liberties, the Green Party is for maintaining the size of the federal government and making some adjustments to existing policies.

Every year, politicians on Capitol Hill pass out over eighty-seven billion taxpayer dollars to more than one hundred of the nation's largest and wealthiest companies. Although this practice, known as “corporate welfare,” is not addressed by the Green Party platform directly, they do write, “...we seek to dissolve the grip of the ideology, intoned by big-money interests for more than twenty years...that government should rightly 'starve the beast' by slashing all spending on social programs.”

In addition, the Green Party is for the decentralization of wealth, so that wealth is more fairly and evenly dispersed among all the population.

Regarding education, the Green Party believes that the federal government should remain involved, but that federal policy should be reformed so that it acts principally to ensure equal access to a quality education. The Greens also propose a plan to encourage parental involvement in the education process, as well as a plan for increasing school funding and using part of the additional money to increase teachers' salaries.

When writing about their approach to the crime issue, the Green Party seems to parallel the ideas of the Libertarian Party. Greens are for legalizing “no-victim” crimes, such as drug use, prostitution, and gambling. Greens, like the Libertarians, are also for ending the War On Drugs. Doing these things would free up law enforcement resources to go after the real criminals of our society.

On the environment, the Green Party Platform has a lot to say. Under their “Environmental Justice” section, they list seven bullet points, outlining their structure for approaching issues of crime against the environment: 1.) enforcing strict penalties against environmental criminals, 2.) funding environmental crime units in counties with a high occurrence of environmental crimes, 3.) imposing a moratorium on siting new toxic chemical or waste facilities in those counties with the highest percentage exposure to hazardous substances, 4.) not forcing workers to choose between a hazardous job or no job at all, 5.) preventing communities, especially low-income or minority communities, from being coerced by government agencies or corporations into siting hazardous materials, or accepting environmentally hazardous practices in order to create jobs, 6.) preceding the siting of hazardous materials or practices with public hearings, conducted in the language of those community members who will be directly effected, and 7.) requiring corporations to permit on-site visitations by community watch-dog committees, and the appointment of a neighborhood environmentalist to their board of directors.

There is much, much more on the environment (in detail) further into the seventy-six-page platform document. Under their section, “Ecological Sustainability,” the Greens cover the following items: Energy, Nuclear Issues, Transportation, Waste Management, Clean Air / Greenhouse Effect / Ozone Depletion, Land Use and Sustainable Cities, Water, Agriculture, Biological Diversity, Ethical Treatment of Animals, Forestry Practices, and Ocean Protection.

The Green Party addresses the issue of poverty (and how to help people overcome poverty) under their section, “Welfare: A Commitment to Ending Poverty.” Greens are in favor of supporting the “big government” approach to the welfare system, and for repealing time limits on welfare. In their 2004 platform, Greens write, “Such support should not be given grudgingly...We call for restoration of a federally funded entitlement (welfare) program to support children, families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled, with no time limit on benefits.”

Quoting, again, directly from the Green Party's 2004 platform, “The Green Party opposes the privatization of Social Security. It is critical that the public protections of Social Security are not privatized and subjected to increased risk. The bottom 20% of American senior citizens get roughly 80% of their income from Social Security, and without Social Security, nearly 70% of black elderly and 60% of Latino elderly households would be in poverty.”

For more information on the Green Party, go to www.gp.org. For more information on the Libertarian Party, go to www.lp.org.

More of My Articles Along This Vein:
The Two-headed Monster (U. S. Politics)
The So-called Debates
Close the Door Or You'll Let In a...
Waste No Vote
The Alexandra Wilson Story
A Little More Information (Part 1 of 2): The Libertarian Party