Democratizing The Electoral College

Democratizing The Electoral College

The true measure of a democracy is not in counting how many votes are cast, but in how many of those votes that are cast count. By this measure, American democracy does not measure up. This failure of American democracy is grounded in America's allocation of electoral college votes for the President of the United States on a "winner take all" basis. By awarding all electoral votes in each state to the candidates who win the most popular votes in that state, the “winner-take-all” or 'general ticket' system effectively disenfranchises everyone who voted for other candidates.

"Winner-Take-All" is structurally anti-majoritarian, institutionally racist, and constitutionally deficient. Winner-Take-All is structurally anti-majoritarian because it concedes over half of the Presidential Electors needed to select the President of the United States of America to the former 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America. "Winner-Take-All" is institutionally racist because it only counts the nearly 27% of general election white votes cast in the former Confederate States, while disregarding the near 46% of the general election black votes cast in those states. "Winner-Take-All" is constitutionally deficient because it exposes the states to a reduction in state representatives pursuant to the mal-apportionment penalty of the Second section of the fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution for an abridgment of a citizens "right to vote".

A Call For The Greening of the Electoral College
(Green Party 2008 national convention)

This year will mark the Century and Two Score years commemoration of the adoption of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Since the debacle of the 2000 presidential elections, the Green Party in partnership with the Douglass Institute of Government has led the way in educating the general citizenry in their constitutional "right to vote" under the provisions of the second section of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution (see the Green Press releases at http://www.electors.us.)

Proposals:

[]Asa Gordon of the Green Party Speakers Bureau and Chair of the DCSGP_Electoral College Task Force to lead a 3day Workshop on "Democratizing the Electoral College" (DEC) at the Green Party 2008 national convention, July 10-13.

[]The DEC workshops will provide the historical context and provide the post convention strategy for effecting the citizens right to vote under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.

[]State Green Partys will send at least one party delegate who will also be a Green party presidential elector to attend the DEC workshops.

[]The Green Party will advertise that the DEC workshop is open to all United States Party's Presidential

[]Candidates nationwide who desire to Democratize the Electoral College.

[]A Final DEC workshop Report to the National Convention.

Jared Ball Ends Presidential Bid, with Support for Cynthia McKinney's Campaign | Elect Cynthia McKinney, President of the United States

Jared Ball Ends Presidential Bid, with Support for Cynthia McKinney's Campaign | Elect Cynthia McKinney, President of the United States

uprisingradio.org » Conversation with Elaine Brown

uprisingradio.org » Conversation with Elaine Brown

Socialist Organizer - For a Labor Party and a Workers International! - Build the Reconstruction Party! McKinney for President in '08!

Socialist Organizer - For a Labor Party and a Workers International! - Build the Reconstruction Party! McKinney for President in '08!

ELAINE BROWN WITHDRAWS FROM GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Elaine Brown

by Diane White diane@dlighten.com

In an open letter to the Green Party, highly respected author, lecturer , and champion for black, brown, poor and oppressed people all over the world, former Black Panther Chairperson Elaine Brown withdraws from the Green Party Presidential Race.

Elaine Brown was an irreplaceable asset to the Green Party. During her 2005 campaign for Mayor of New Brunswick, GA Brown inspired an influx of black and brown voters into a political party marred by a reputation for being a bunch of "white tree hugging hippies" out of touch with "urban" America. Announcing her intentions to seek the Green Party presidential candidacy in February of this year, Brown was poised to bring about a much needed change. Her commitment to the disenfranchised, her organizing experience, her reputation and her belief in the 10 key values espoused by the Greens were a perfect match for the party, so it would seem. But alas, there are the "Greens" and there's the "Party", not necessarily one in the same.

The failure of party leadership to properly deal with a slanderous letter written and circulated to the Steering Committee by a paid staff member and subsequent attacks on Brown supporters who were appalled by the racially inflammatory contents of the letter was surely the "straw that broke the camel's back".

For the record, Elaine Brown is well known to the "grassroots", she is an icon with a proven track record. It was Elaine Brown who called for the debate in California. Elaine Brown is to the third-world as Ralph Nader is to this country. The Green Party is a "big" head without a body.

Renounces Green Party Membership
_____________________________

OPEN STATEMENT TO THE GREEN PARTY

As of today, I am no longer a candidate for the Green Party nomination for president of the United States, and I hereby resign from all affiliation with the Green Party. I believe the leadership of the Green Party of the United States has been seized by neo-liberal men who entrench the Party in internecine antagonisms so as to compromise its stated principles and frustrate its electoral and other goals. They have made it impossible to advance any truly progressive ideals or objectives under the umbrella of the Green Party, and, thus, rendered it counterproductive for me to go forward as a Green Party candidate or member.

I believe this small clique that has captured control of the Party has transformed it into a repository for erstwhile, disgruntled Democrats, who would violate the Party’s own vision and sabotage the good will and genuine commitment of the general membership. Indeed, these usurpers foster a reactionary agenda, supporting partisans in and backers of the Bush wars and disavowing the Party’s more progressive tenets in favor of promoting high-profile participation in the politics of the establishment.

This became clear to me almost from the moment I announced my candidacy in February of 2007. I intended using my campaign to bring large numbers of blacks and browns into the Party, particularly from the hood and the barrio—as would come to be reflected in the lists of supporters and delegates I’ve submitted in connection with my candidacy. As I asserted I would use the respect I enjoyed as a former leader of the Black Panther Party to do so, some in the hierarchy seemed utterly fearful of the prospect of a massive influx of blacks and browns into the Green Party. Soon, there was wide circulation of false rumors that I was a one-time “government agent,” which was intended to discredit my history in the Black Panther Party so as to undermine my potential influence.—And, since then, I have had to devote significant time and energy to addressing these lies.—What this effort revealed, though, was how the Green Party, while advocating “diversity,” remains dominated by whites. Indeed, the Party is able to count less blacks, browns and natives in its membership than our national population percentages and certainly less than the Democrats themselves.

In effect, the present Green Party leadership promotes a kinder, gentler capitalism, a moderated racism, an environmentally-sustainable globalism, which I cannot support. They are dedicated to the underside of the Party’s platform, which falls short of repudiating the capitalist state, source of all the social ills the Party would address. They equivocate by promoting “an economic alternative to corporate capitalism and a socialist state,” advocate a “re-formulation” of the IMF, NAFTA, so forth, and advance the institution of “stakeholder capitalism.”

On the other hand, they demonstrate a willingness to override the best of the Party’s platform. My sharp criticism of high-profile Party members’ support for the “three-strikes” crime laws, the sole basis for the inhumane mass incarceration of people in the United States, particularly blacks—the repeal of which the Party’s platform advocates—has been met with outright enmity. And, to divert attention from this and other critical issues, the leadership has employed chicanery in their promulgation of defamatory lies about me—which they finally extended to character assaults on my supporters and critics of their unscrupulousness.

It is my sincere belief that the Green Party as it now exists has no intention of using the ballot to actualize real social progress, and will aggressively repel attempts to do so. To remain in the fray or in the Party, then, would require a betrayal of my lifelong and ongoing commitment to serving the interests of black and other oppressed people by advancing revolutionary change in America.

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Cynthia McKinney Announces she's seeking the Green Party Nomination for President.

See Video on Youtube

YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=03cOM9r51Nw

Read here on Cynthia McKinney Campaign Page. You'll also find Windows Media Video and MP3 Audio version here.

http://www.runcynthiarun.org/

Read about supporting the campaign

http://supporters.runcynthiarun.org/supporters.cgi

Green hip- hop politico to appear at SLO Senior Center

Jared Ball

Green hip- hop politico to appear at SLO Senior Center
BY KYLIE MENDONCA

Date: 12/12/2007

Locals may not have heard of Green Party presidential candidate Jared Ball, or his campaign manager Head Roc--known as "the Mayor of D.C. hip hop"--but their ideas about social equality and reform have been told before through the voices of Martin Luther King Jr. and Black Panther Fred Hampton.

Ball seeks to be a new kind of presidential candidate, with a message delivered in a language of the underrepresented majority: hip hop. The 36-year-old professor of communications and father of two hopes to inspire African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans to vote. At the same time, he wants to rebuild the Green Party into a unifying and powerful force.

To do this, Ball and his staff have taken a novel approach to politics. On Dec. 17, Ball will share his vision for a third party at the SLO Senior Center. He promises that this won't be a standard political speech with accompanying photo op--Ball is equal parts performance artist and social commentator, with the aspirations of a social revolutionary.

Ball's hip-hop campaign is a new idea, and he says that's exactly what politics needs. Hip hop, he said, is a modern language of the oppressed and will be the key to uniting ethnic groups who are generally marginalized and overlooked within the two-party system.

"We use hip hop, being that that's what we've been raised in and are practitioners of," Ball said. "So we use that as a point of departure to talk about any number of different things. We don't want to confuse people by saying a hip-hop campaign means that we aren't serious, or that we aren't committed to solidarity with a number of different groups of people, but that is our natural and most immediate cultural form, and we feel, why not embrace that?"

Music and performance aside, Ball delivers a message that rejects militarism for social growth, and would replace corporate perks with a focus on human rights.

"Whether we're talking about politics, or hip hop, or anything else for that matter," Ball said, "we like to get people to think critically and to challenge what they think they know about or what they think they know about that which is popular."

Ball's main message is a call for all types, and all ages, of people to unite.

"I don't necessarily see age as being related to conservatism or progressiveness," Ball said. "So I think the struggle is only: Can we galvanize those who consider themselves progressive into taking the challenge, and taking the leap and to creating a new party?"

He ends the conversation with a nod of hope, goodwill, and a challenge, if you will--quoting the words of Hampton: "I wish you peace, if you're willing to fight for it."

Ball's hip-hop presidential performance is from 7 to 10 p.m., Dec. 17, at 1445 Santa Rosa St., in the senior center.

Hope and Leadership in Elaine Brown Presidential Campaign Causes Surge in New Young Activists Registering Green

Elaine Brown

by Henry Duke henryduke2004@yahoo.com

Be positive, read a book, register a new green, change a diaper, and ask Cynthia McKinney to join a Green Party Presidential Debate before the California deadline to register voters on Martin Luther King Day, January 21, 2008.

Cause word on the streets of Watts, Watsonville, Santa Ana, Oakland/Berkeley is that despite the cages, or the acts of the grinches, the birds are singing, and singing, and singing...

With hardly any money at all, a new generation of youth -- alienated by war, incarceration, violence, and all the sequelae of anarchistic, valueless privatization and free trade -- have found in the senior 60's Black and Peace movement spokesperson, not defeated by the US War and Terror machine, not duped by the shock doctrine, not dead from disaster capitalism, no not this Woman of Our Time, but rather sharpened like a sickle, and made flexible not hard by the hammer of corporate big money and COINTELPRO, HER canary song announcing that we CAN win, and that human needs and the crisis of human suffering WILL trump private profits, if we stand up.

This wise voice which has endured beatings, continual harassment and threats, and a willful refusal by the mainstream media and even our party to allow her to have the same platform built for others, is inspiring a most electrifying and empowering movement of disenchanted non-voters to take charge of their lives and to register green and become delegates for Elaine

Brown.

We don't have the money of the democrats, and we're not asking for the money funding the other candidates.

We are just registering voters and inspiring them to see their power.

To the GPUS both within California and in the Central GPUS entities, we only ask you to ask Cynthia McKinney to present herself for a debate with the other major candidates for the Green Party nomination before the deadline to register to vote in California January 21st MLK day, especially with the leader who leads with no money but with her heart, spirit, and un-silenced voice, Elaine "Green Party" Brown!!!!!

Thanks to all the people running and inspiring,

Elaine Brown's book, A Taste of Power, about her earlier life as she became the top leader and only-ever Womyn Chair of the Black Panther Party, can be purchased in soft cover or borrowed from me, if 'ya can't find it in your local B and N.

http://www.freespeech.org/videodb/index.php?action=detail&video_id=10741&browse=0

Keynote: Elaine Brown

Former Black Panther Party leader, noted author, community and prison justice activist Elaine addresses students at Regis University as a part of women’s history month. Ms. Brown has recently announced that she intends to seek the Green Party's nomination for a presidential bid in 2008.

Series: Keynote
Episode: Keynote: Elaine Brown

Viewing options
Play RealMedia format (55m 33s; for broadband users)

Producer: Kevin Price (www.freespeech.org)

PS Join us! Off of the listserves and into the screen door porches and
streets!

GP RELEASE: Green Party's Thornton awarded for work on drug policy reform

Clifford Thornton

Mr. Thornton, co-founder of the drug law reform organization Efficacy, Inc. http://www.Efficacy-online.org, is a national co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.
In 2006, he ran on the Green Party ticket for governor of Connecticut.

"Cliff Thornton's work for the reform of US drug policy is in line with Green opposition to the War on Drugs, unjust and draconian drug laws, and the use of drug laws to fill up prison cells with black, brown, poor, and young Americans.


Alfred Molison

We're proud that Cliff is a member of the Green Party," said Alfred Molison, co-chair of the Green Party's national Black Caucus http://gpblackcaucus.blogspot.com.

Excerpts from a November 29, 2007 Drug Policy Alliance press release announcing the award:

"Longtime Connecticut drug policy reform advocate and activist Clifford Thornton will receive the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Drug Policy

Alliance. The award honors citizens who make democracy work in the difficult area of drug law

and policy reform.

Thornton will be among leading advocates that work courageously to promote and implement more sensible drug policies who will be honored at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, in New Orleans, December 5-8. The conference is organized by the Drug Policy Alliance and dozens of other organizations. The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs and promote new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights. The winners will be honored during an awards ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 8....

Thornton is the primary speaker for Efficacy, Inc. -- a non-profit organization that has

concentrated on drug policy reform. Thornton ran for governor in Connecticut in 2006 on the Green Party ticket. His campaign centered on drug policy reform. Thornton has done over 400 radio shows on drug policy. Thornton has spoken to over 300,000 people in some 450 venues about the drug war as it relates to health, economics, race, class, and white privilege. Efficacy is

partially responsible for the removal of D.A.R.E. from the Ocean City, NJ school system in 2001.

Thornton gave a presentation to the board of education that received great reviews and helped

facilitate its demise. Thornton taught a graduate-level course, "Illegal Drugs and Public Policy" at Trinity College in Hartford, CT in 2002."

Media contacts for Drug Policy Alliance
http://www.drugpolicy.org: Tony Newman,
646-335-5384; Tommy McDonald, 646-335-2242


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

. Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml

. Green Party Speakers Bureau
http://www.gp.org/speakers

. Green candidate database for 2007 and other
campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml

"War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color
Green Party press release, May 16, 2007
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_05_16.shtml

"Green Party says racially biased US justice
system needs drastic overhaul"
Green Party press release, July 25, 2007
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_07_25.shtml