My take on the 2004 Minnesota Green Party Convention

Presidential candidate addresses Green Party convention Friday

By Brad Swenson
Staff Writer

"Saying the party needs to strengthen its foundation from the grass roots,
Minnesota Greens on Friday prefer no endorsement for president."

I was distubed by the following excerpt:

"When Nader supporters asked for time to speak for Nader, they were shouted
down."

Is this true? If so, I am very disappointed. I don't mind that the party
decided to endorse the "no candidate", but shouting down a minority position
is not acceptable. I'd like to hear what happened from someone who was
there.

Eric Oines
North Minneapolis

Eric,

Yes, we got a couple of delegates for you. I was one of the Nader
supporters that was shouted down. I probably should have prepared more and
spoke up sooner, but I really thought somebody else would step forward.
Sure missed you, but Karen Carlson served your district dauntlessly.

Basically, here's what I said, in paraphrased form:

"Just because Bush is bad doesn't mean that Kerry is acceptable, and if
you're for NOTA then that's who you help. If Kerry is elected, current
consumption will continue, and the oil will run out, with severe
consequences. Kerry just tells people what they want to hear, and he does
flip flop, so the Republicans are probably right on that one. Kerry voted
for the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, NAFTA, Most
Favored Nation treatment for Communist China, ethanol, even though it takes
about a gallon of ethanol to make a gallon of ethanol, and a non-universal,
non-singlepayer health care plan. It's not too late for us to put Nader on
the ballot in Minnesota. He got the Reform Party endorsement, which
increases our numbers, and he was right about the ballot access deadlines."

I guess I spent most of my speech ripping Kerry, but then had some good
things to say about Nader toward the end. Apparently I went over a minute
so people started heckling me. The first time I got shouted down was when I
announced my caucus and started elaborating on my position, but I don't
care, to heck with the hecklers!

I still like Cobb, and enjoyed his speech. One of our delegates defected to
his caucus, but if I had to choose another caucus, that would be it. We had
11 and they had 24, so after he left we had 10 and they had 25, so they were
able to get a 5th delegate to national and we kept our 2, who are Rhoda
Gilman and Dorian with alternates Robert Cook and Travis... After the
initial walking subcaucuses, I looked to Cobb delegate Michael Cavlan for
advice on who to support for at-large congressional district and state
delegates. I didn't want to vote for a NOTA person if I could help it.

The NOTA lit insists that they're not for Kerry, they just want to
concentrate on local races, lay low, and keep from ticking off the Democrats
too much. They struck me as bold cowards, but Mike said he respects that
they're just doing what they think is best for the party.

I get the impression the Green Party has become somewhat cliquish, and by
passing up our nomination, Nader was able to do what we couldn't do alone:
Reach out and expand the progressive base, with a chance to unify the Reform
and Green Parties and double our numbers. One Cobb supporter said Nader's
positions have shifted on any number of issues, but I don't sense that. I
don't think it's like Jesse Ventura trying to get us to adopt his agenda.
Rather I see it as the Reform Party people in agreement with Nader's
positions, which, to the best of my knowledge, are still in line with Green
Party values.

Here is a summary of the results:

9 - No Candidate and No Candidate/No Imperialism
5 - David Cobb
2 - Ralph Nader
2 - Undecided
1 - Energy Issues, etc.
... plus 8 congressional district delegates and one at-large delegate.

Tom Cleland
44B, Golden Valley