Corporate Power vs. Green Power

This is an article I posted to rec.music.artists.ani-difranco on 07/21/2000 in response to the question of who we were voting for and whether we thought government should have more or less power. This was in the aftermath of a debate about the evils of the Libertarian Party.
I'm not interested in increasing or decreasing or worrying about the
power of government. That argument is all smoke in mirrors. The real
power imbalence in america is the power of the corporations.

Why does a government with power scare us? Because it is a government
in the pockets of and doing the bidding of corporations not the
people. 

We live in a democracy where the government should be in the hands of
the people...and I'm all for power in the hands of the people. Why do
we not have this power anymore? How did the corporations take it from
us?

Several things have happened: 1) The people have abdicated their power
by not voting and by not being active citizens. 2) There has been
little choice in the matter with the 2 party system, both parties of
which are pro-corporate. 3) The corporations have spent massive
amounts of money influencing politics...corporate money can only be
countered by public activism (such as supporting campaigns for
anti-corporate candidates and VOTING). We can't out spend them but we
can out number them.

Ralph Nader and the Green Party give us an alternative to all of
this. Ralph Nader, even if elected, will not be a panacea that brings
us into utopia but it will be the beginning of turning the tide. It
will shake things up. Both political parties will realize that they
have to actually pay attention to the anti-corporate pro-social
justice progressive voices in america rather than taking us for
granted, assuming that we will vote democrat or not vote at all. It
will bring us together as a massive populist movement and we will show
the world that we can work together for positive change whether the
corporations and the republicrats are willing to work with us or
not. 

Inform yourself.

Please read the Green Party platform (which Ralph has promised to
adopt even though he is not joining the Green Party as a member...he
refuses monetary allegiance to any political parties...so he is the
Green candidate but not a Green member...how cool is it that this is a
party willing to put non members on the ballot):
http://www.gp.org/platform/gpp2000.html

Please visit Ralph's website:
http://www.votenader.org/

Please find the local ballot petitioners in your local state and sign
(or volunteer to distribute) a petition to get him on the ballot in
your state:
http://www.votenader.org/state/index.html

Please give Ralph some money (he is not taking _any_ PAC money,
corporate money, or soft money..._all_ his donations are from
individuals and limitted to $1000 per person...so he really needs your
$20 or whatever to compete with the big guys):
http://www.votenader.org/donate.html

And as you can probably guess, the answer to the original question is:
I am voting for Ralph Nader for President and Winona LaDuke (she is an
amazing amazing woman, everyone needs to go out and read about her and
hear her speak...she's a feminist, a native rights activist, an
environmental activist...she kicks ass) for Vice President for 2000.

For what its worth (trying to be _vaguely_ on topic) Ani DiFranco and
the Indigo Girls have endorsed Ralph Nader.

If people want more links to Ralph/Winona stuff let me know!

Z
@=

And think about the 10 Key Values of the Green parties and wonder how
you could possibly disagree with such folks (think about whether the
democrats would ever speak this plainly or this radically or this
progressively):

                         Social Justice
                    Community-Based Economics
                          Nonviolence
                         Decentralisation
                     Future Focus/Sustainability
                           Feminism
                  Personal and Global Responsibility
                       Respect for Diversity
                      Grassroots Democracy
                       Ecological Wisdom

http://www.greens.org/values/