Closet Greens & the Green Fringe

I am ever amazed at how much effort active Greens make to render the party unpalatable to all but the already marginalized; the bizarre infighting, the pet conspiracy theories, the not-so-subtle socialist infiltration that has no business in a party deemed "not left, not right, just Green."

Sigh.

Meanwhile, more than a few Greens are making progress in light of the popularity of the small-g green movement. But it is almost easier to make green progress without the tainted Green Party brand.

Although I have previously described how one goes about gaining political creditability (often in non-partisan settings), I fear that a creditable Green Party presence will not emerge on the scene until sufficient mainstream-thinking but correctly Green folks begin to emerge locally.

I am hopeful that as less anti-social Greens work quietly to earn individual community support and run for office -- based on their ideas and records, not a tainted party label -- that the party label can gain the respectability the 10 KV deserve.

If you are a closet Green -- one for whom the 10 KV resonate, even as party machinations and efforts to drag the party to the left have you thinking about the dreaded Decline to State -- I'd love to hear from you. There must be a way to swing this party into the mainstream. I think the quiet Greens might just be the ones to do it.