Elaine Brown is the best Green Party candidate for President

If you're alright with it, I'd like to deal with the real world. In other words, Kucinich isn't going to get the Democratic Party's nomination, so that's not even up for discussion for me. And I think we can both agree to that. So that out of the way, we'll deal with candidates who are truly free of the two party system. I'll talk about Moore and Nader and even McKinney later on in my post as I think they represent what is wrong with the traditional focus of Green Candidates. To begin, Elaine is not a single issue candidate. I'll display the numerical points that she includes in her platform, so that all the observers can make their own decision (a la Fox News). 1. Repeal of the "three-strikes" crime laws, restoring a juvenile justice system, funding programs of education and rehabilitation for those incarcerated and transitional housing and employment for those released, and restoring voting and other civil rights to prisoners and former prisoners. 2. Full and free health care for everyone, as exists in most civilized countries. 3. Complete and free primary, secondary and higher education for everyone, eliminating the exclusion of the children of poor and working families from obtaining a college education. 4. Complete opening of the borders of the United States accompanied by the institution of a guaranteed minimum living wage of $25/hour for all workers, so as to elucidate the so-called immigration question now confounded by racist assaults on Mexicans and Central Americans coming into the U.S. to work and to provide all people working in the United States with a decent standard of living. 5. Creation of a base of free or low-cost, decent housing, so as to eliminate homelessness and provide every human being the fundamental right to a decent place to live. 6. The repeal of all laws that discriminate against or dehumanize people on account of ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexuality, religion, age, or disability, and the creation of laws that guarantee non-discrimination and human rights to all. 7. Institution of laws and policies that promote purification and cleansing of the air, water and land and that outlaw polluting, contaminating or adulterating them, toward reversal of the pollution of nature itself, particularly as this pollution seeps into and devastates the lives of black and brown and other poor people trying to breathe and live in the ghettos, barrios and hollers of this nation. 8. The payment of reparations by the United States government to native peoples for the theft of land and to Gullah/Geechee and other African slave descendants for slave labor. 9. Total dismantling of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction by the United States, and recognition of and adherence to all international agreements as to war, crime and human rights. 10. Imposition of wealth taxes and reduction of taxes for poor and working people, toward a complete and fair redistribution of the wealth of the nation. Earlier in her platform she gives a shoutout to a progressive foreign policy by saying, "Beyond a call for the immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops and war machinery from Iraq and Afghanistan." She is a multi-issue candidate that frames issues in how they disproportionately affect marginalized groups, be they black and brown folks, or working class folks. This goes with her overall strategy. As she puts it, "The Green Party, too, must seize this moment of national malaise and disillusion to come out of the morass of being a repository for disgruntled Democrats and open the Party's doors to the non-voting millions so as to actively and powerfully challenge the status quo and become an effective force in the national political arena." I have been deeply involved in the Green Party at the State and Local level for the past 2 and a half years. This could not be more true. My criticism of Moore, Nader, Mesplay, and even McKinney is that they are the same old politics in a new body. All of the above want to push progressive policies but not do the groundwork of expanding the electorate. Brown recognizes that that strategy is ineffective. I see the strategy of what I'll call traditional politics as fundamentally against the 10 key values. It only focuses on targeting active voters within the system. This means that the Green Party ends up targeting Independents and disgruntled Democrats. In other words, we craft our platform to the already privileged folks within the American system. The folks that don't register, don't register because regardless of who wins, there's no difference in their day to day life. When we refocus our efforts on the marginalized peoples, it only brings us strategic benefits as well as keeping us closer to our principles. The positive elements of focusing on marginalized groups are as follows: First it keeps us closer to the ten key values and a living breathing vision for social justice. These are the folks that don't have a voice in the current political system. Real voter registration efforts that focus on community issues and build a base keep a door open both ways, between folks that are largely disempowered, to whom the party should be responsible, and the party. This way the party would have more input and could articulate a more clear vision for the society. This can only happen if the party has a commitment first to changing the political landscape and second to winning elections. Second, it is strategic. Greens have tried for 4 different national elections to pull disgruntled Democrats into voting for their candidate. All they have gotten are charges of being "spoilers." If they refocus their efforts on expanding the voting pool and targeting non-voting groups, and taking up issues that affect communities that are too controversial for mainstream politicians to take, then that charge won't be able to hold water. The reality of the situation is that in the past, the Greens have actually tried to spoil. They want to fight over the 45 percent of the population that votes instead of doing the harder work of mobilizing the non-voting majority of disempowered and marginalized peoples. If they do this admittedly difficult work, they would be a much more powerful organization. As I had said earlier, I feel that Elaine Brown is the best candidate for the party due to her strategic vision for the party. While the other candidates have platforms that are fine, her focus on disempowered folks and marginalized communities is going to be the first step in a process of changing the Green Party to truly embrace the principle of Grassroots Democracy. Right now, we're playing on astroturf, and that has got to change. For me, Elaine Brown is the way to get there. I've got nothing against Cynthia. Ralph is a little weird on the immigration question, and I don't know enough about Kent or Brian. What I do know, is that they fully intend on playing politics as usual. That is what has got to change, and Elaine is the way to change that.