FACTION (via ef brown)

Green Party Happy to 'Spoil' Democratic Presidential Run in 2004 (Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, August 18, 2003, Fox News)

Some members of the Green Party are reserving much of their anger for Democrats these days, and say they don’t care if another third-party run by Ralph Nader wrecks the Democrats' opportunity to replace President Bush in 2004.

"As the Democrats have retreated from their core constituencies, they have given the Republicans a real license to move into greater extremes," said national party media coordinator Scott McLarty, who accuses Democrats of betraying their so-called progressive ideals.

"[The Democratic Party] seems to be crumbling as a political force that means something to anybody, crumbling as a real force of opposition," he said. "That is what we mean when we say we are so strongly in favor of running a national candidate."

One of the primary challenges that faces the Democrats is that as a matter of ideology--at least among the white intellectuals, activists and politicians who comprise the backbone of the Party--the Green platform has considerable appeal. However, it has none to Labour, blacks, and Hispanics--the voters upon whom the Party depends to remain competitive. For sixty years, control of Congress and frequently the White House, meant that the former could buy off the latter with federal monies, laws, regulations, and the like and never really needed to compromise on ideology to win majorities. The questions now concern whether the Left can move to the center and broaden the Party's appeal and whether interest groups will stay loyal to a party that can't buy them. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 18, 2003 9:54 AM