How the US Green party could willingly destroy everything they aspire to…
(Originally published in the Western People on 2024-10-01)
Dr. Jill Stein speaks December 5, 2016, in New York City. In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, Stein raise alarms about the growing risk of nuclear war due to U.S. actions in support of Israel. Drew Angerer-Getty Images
She was polite but purposeful, ‘I’m sorry to interrupt, but I overheard you said something about the Green party in Ireland?’. Her half-smile didn’t reach her eyes, and she leaned in almost anxiously, studying me. I had been chatting (clearly too loudly) to another actor at the end of a casting workshop about how online auditions (known as self-tapes) had become the norm since we all were forced online during the Covid pandemic. My fellow actor was hearing the compelling stories of how I had found myself as the new chairperson of the Mayo Greens at the outbreak and led our monthly meetings into the virtual space of ‘can you hear us now?’ chants and back-to-front cameras. Taking advantage of the interruption, he found something incredibly interesting in the far corner of the car park which required his urgent attention, leaving me with my new and insistent conversationalist.
My reprise of my former party position and hilarious Covid anecdotes were quickly cut short by a burst of overspilling words, which she had clearly been too long seeking an outlet. The gist of her spiel was to educate me that Jill Stein, the US Green Party presidential nominee, was fighting for Climate action and Palestinians in Gaza in particular, against the corruption of the Biden government. She barely mentioned Donald Trump but did also lump Republicans in with ‘American Capitalism’ and oil companies who were all leading us into destroying the world. Her eyes then narrowed, ‘which type of Green are you?’. I explained had no vote here in America but that I did obviously support climate action and social justice but wondered how a vote for Stein would do anything for the Green agenda? As far as I knew she had never won an election in her long career as a Green politician and it could be argued that the few votes she received in key swing-states during the 2016 presidential election, would otherwise have gone to Hillary Clinton — thus handing victory to Donald Trump. ‘You clearly, clearly don’t understand’, my Green colleague hissed, ‘the electoral system here is rigged and both parties are as bad as each other’. She grabbed her bag and turned to go off into the evening before remembering one last, almost despairing, barb, ‘I don’t think you are a real Green, I guess’. Then she was gone.
I spent the next day with our interaction was still playing on my mind. In my time travelling roleplay I stopped my American Green in her tracks with several witty rebuttals — including informing her of how the late GAA referee and Carn school principal, Pat Dowling, had coached underage teams. I remember him roaring at us reluctant kids in his strong Kerry accent, to run around a sodden Moygownagh football pitch with, ‘What are you waiting for? Planning Permission?’. For Pat, as with any Kerry supporter, success came from playing the game you were in, not the one you wanted to be in. Once I complained at half time in a match that my opponent was pulling my jersey back and I couldn’t run, but the referee was ignoring it. It wasn’t fair I pleaded. Pat erupted in a mixture of spit and disbelief, ‘Fair!? This isn’t fair — this is football! Do you want to win the effin thing or not?’. Tough lesson for a twelve-year-old.
In fact, while my new antagonist complained against the unfairness of politics, she was also partially correct. As I have previously written, the American electoral system supports the straitjacket duopoly of Republican and Democrat parties — where their unlimited financial resources and the first-past-the post contests, mean no other party can gain local representation and build on successive electoral successes. However, to support Jill Stein in this upcoming election is to effectively support Donald Trump and ignore the fact that the Democrats have adopted Green party policies (which Stein also appears to be upset over) with a massive investment in Green energy and incentives in the ‘Green New Deal’ act. Meanwhile, Trump has proven to be an existential threat to democracy and has done nothing, nor promised anything, that could be seen as favourable to any Green — real or otherwise.[1]
This blind adherence to principal over practicality is the bane of any political party, which is eventually faced with the decision of whether to compromise and join with an opponent to gain power, or to remain aloof but powerless, secure on its higher moral ground. Brendan Behan famously quipped that the ‘the first item on the agenda of any Irish organisation is the split’. While referring to Nationalist and Republican movements in particular, Behan’s prediction happened to the Irish Green party in the wake of the Irish general election of 2020, with the decision of leader Eamon Ryan to lead his party into Government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, whom it had campaigned against during the election. The intense intra-party debate and eventual vote to join the new agreed Programme for Government was fiercely resisted by many within the Green movement and led to an exodus of members who refused to compromise on their social justice principles. Our small — but active — Mayo Green party was not immune and several leading lights departed including Saoirse McHugh, who had been our parliamentary candidate in Mayo with 6.5% of the first-preference vote. This led to a late night call by the secretary notifying me with cinematic flair that as all the officers above me were shot or missing in action, I was the next-in-line for leader, despite having only joined the year previously. Thus, I became chairperson by default, but not before Saoirse had asked me directly in our last meeting how could I support this devil’s bargain? In effect also asking me ‘was I a real Green?’.
I don’t know if I am a real Green but I believe that the art of compromise is the key to real effective change. Rarely do political or social movements sweep across the land with such unanimity that they get to see all their agreed principals enshrined in law and social contract. Jill Stein is no Eamon Ryan. His upcoming departure from Irish politics will see a legacy of real Green movement ‘wins’ including a world-leading Climate Act, Renewable Energy initiatives and Public Transport improvements. Meanwhile, despite all her election campaigns, Stein and her party have zero policy achievements. In fact, by effectively ‘spoiling the votes’ both she (and Ralph Nader, her predecessor) may have instead ushered in Republican presidential administrations who were notoriously pro-fossil-fuels and anti-environmental.
This election on 5 November is still too close to call. Any vote in the swing-states for anyone but Kamala Harris, is a vote for Donald Trump. California is not one of them and so my casting workshop antagonist is unlikely to contribute to Trump’s election in any case. But colleagues of hers, in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could yet have an outsized role in who gets to be sworn in to replace Joe Biden next January. Yet, if Pat Dowling could have a word, I’m sure he’d ask them, do you want to keep your principles intact?, ‘or win the effin thing?’.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/18/green-party-jill-stein-election