Politics are a lot like trains. The Democrat and Republican trains are pulled by sleek and powerful engines fueled by political action committee (PAC) money. In the dark of night about 20 years ago the Democrat train hitched to the rear of the Republican train. Now there’s just the Republicrat train with the Republican engine pulling and the Democrat engine pushing the cars down the track.
Just behind the Republicrat engine at the head of the train is the club car. It’s hard to miss with all of its polished stainless steel, chrome, and glass. There’s a lot of smoke, but not much fire in this car, as it’s the domicile of the old white men of both former parties, the domain of the corporate aristocracy — the wealthiest 10 percent that own 90 percent of the country’s wealth.
Behind the club car are a lot of coach-class sleeper cars. This is the middle 60 percent that believe that if they work harder or catch a break they can take their rightful place in the club car. Of course, the dirty secret is that this never happens; those already in the club car have no intention of letting any of the riff-raff — that is to say, anyone not already among them — though the door. About half of these sleeper cars are comfortably well appointed and about half are tattered and worn around the edges but comfortable nonetheless.
Behind the sleeper cars are the boxcars holding the bottom 25 percent of the populace. Spartan and bare, these cars are crowded. Because the side doors of these cars are wide open, quite a few passengers are lost as the train pitches from side to side. Smarter boxcar passengers have learned to lean to the left as the train usually lurches to the right.
At the end of the train is the caboose containing a 5 percent amalgamation of what remains of the free-thinking left. While the rest of the formerly Democratic train was listing hard to the right, the caboose was seeking to balance the whole with a concerted push to the left. This against-the-grain behavior was not appreciated by those in the club car. It didn’t really have enough of an impact to affect the smoothness of their ride, but it did manage to slosh a little of the fine wine in the club-car’s hand-cut crystal goblets that were filled to overflowing.
On that fateful dark night 20 some years ago when the Republicrat train was made, on a siding probably midway on the Crescent, the Republicans told the Democrats to cut the rowdy caboose loose. The Democrats had been leaning in that general direction anyway and took the opportunity. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back for you,” said the Democrats as the newly formed Republicrat train pulled away from the siding. But those of us in the caboose knew we had been abandoned like a red-headed stepchild without any form of locomotion. It was okay, we all just got out and pushed and managed to pick up a few boxcars and even a few sleeper coaches along the way. The difference was that we were completely self-propelled and we were laying new track as we gained momentum. Push and lay track; push and lay track. After all, we had a damn fine map. At every junction, the Republicrat train lurched further to the right. While the caboose was laying its own track, it had a pronounced left-leaning bent based on not two, but four sturdy rails: Ecology, social and economic justice, grassroots democracy, and nonviolence. Ours wasn’t the fastest train running, but it was being built to last.
Laying all that track and pushing all those railroad cars was a lot of grueling work. Unlike the Republicrats, whose platform changes every year depending which way the wind blows, our platform is designed for the long term with the idea that only minor modifications will be necessary and only then after much deliberation.
With that, the Green Party of Minnesota rode its gathering momentum into the train wreck that was its first endorsing convention as a major political party.
The convention got off to a rough start, as we struggled to reach consensus on four pages of convention rules. The Greens employ the formal consensus process for all meetings, and while the process works really well at the local level, I was very much concerned about how it would scale to a statewide convention with 400 delegates, most of whom were not familiar with the process itself. To my delight, the formal consensus process scaled exceptionally well, and while the rules approval process took longer and was “messier” than anyone would have liked, the process allowed us to modify a set of rules to meet all concerns. Unlike the Republicrats, the Greens make our sausage publicly.
The formal consensus process consists of a proposal followed by clarifying questions and concerns. Questions are explored and answered; concerns are resolved, if possible. If a concern remains unresolved it is said to be either a non-blocking or a blocking concern. Non-blocking concerns are recorded and the attempt to reach consensus continues. Blocking concerns prevent consensus. An attempt is made to resolve the blocking concern by revising the proposal and addressing the concern directly. If the attempt at resolution fails, the originator of the blocking concern can either stand aside with her concerns formally recorded or block consensus. If consensus is blocked, the proposal is not adopted and the next agenda item is considered. It’s a sometimes arduous process, but inherently fair and democratic.
The Minnesota Green Party has grown considerably since its last endorsing convention in 1998 where 20 party members met under a shade tree. This year, 384 delegates (and an additional 159 proxy votes) — almost exclusively white and affluent — attended the 2002 endorsing convention at the Saint Cloud Civic Center.
After three hours of pushing and track laying the rules were approved and we got on with the business of the convention — actually endorsing candidates. The first three endorsements were non-contentious and clear, even though a super majority of 66 percent was required to obtain party endorsement. The delegate balloting was ranked and used the instant runoff process favored by the party.
- Dave Berger ran unopposed and was endorsed as the State Auditor candidate with 98 percent of the first ballot.
- Andrew Koebrick was endorsed as the Green candidate for Secretary of State; he ran unopposed and received 84 percent of the first ballot.
- Ken Pentel was endorsed as the gubernatorial candidate with 80 percent of the first ballot.
Then the wheels started to fall off. There were no announced candidates for Attorney General, but one appeared from the convention floor. Unfortunately, he wasn’t familiar with either the party’s platform or 10 key values and wasn’t sure what the Attorney General actually did. He was not endorsed.
The senatorial endorsement was prickly, as everyone attending knew it would be.
Minnesota is blessed with two of the more progressive Republicrats in the Senate: Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton. Wellstone, after pledging that he would run for only two terms, is running for his third term against Norm Coleman, former mayor of Saint Paul. Some Greens were adamant about not endorsing a senatorial candidate, insisting that the party support Wellstone’s re-election bid by voting to endorse None of the Above (NOTA) at the convention. This group circulated a letter from Winona LaDuke, the Green vice presidential candidate in 2000, supporting Wellstone’s re-election. The effort was for naught, however, as NOTA was eliminated in the first ballot of ranked voting having received only 64 votes.
The results of the first senatorial ballot were 221 votes for Ed McGaa and 190 for Tim Davis. Since neither candidate received the two-thirds super majority required for endorsement, a second ballot was cast with delegates allowed to choose only between the two candidates. Under the ranked voting process, delegates could vote for either candidate, rank both candidates in order of preference, or abstain. On the second ranked ballot, McGaa won 323 votes (combined first and second choices) and won the party endorsement.
Many Greens, including myself, were convinced that it was imperative to come out of the convention with an endorsed senatorial candidate. In hindsight, that imperative was a large mistake. To endorse a candidate, a super majority of us had to rank McGaa in the second ballot, and that’s exactly what we did.
McGaa announced his candidacy days before the convention and was unknown to most of the delegates, although he was screened by a party committee. Subsequent to his endorsement, it’s become clear that some of McGaa’s positions — most notably his support for the war in Afghanistan — is not consistent with the Green platform or 10 key values. During the convention, at least one delegate urged McGaa be endorsed as a “dream candidate” (McGaa is a Lakota Sioux Indian and a veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars).
I’m not sure if we were feeling collectively guilty about endorsing a group of middle-class white men for state-wide positions, or if we were seduced by the well-spoken McGaa, or if we were just hell-bent on endorsing a senatorial candidate. I suspect it was a combination of all three. McGaa played the part of the trickster as a master. Clearly he stood at a railway junction switch offering us the choice of downhill tracks already laid in contrast to the onerous work of laying track uphill, around the Wellstone mountain. For whatever reasons, we chose the easier path, and I expect we’ll deeply regret it.
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Politics are like trains was originally published by ARTS & FARCES internet on Wednesday, 29 May 2002 at 3:21 AM CDT. Copyright © ARTS & FARCES LLC. All rights reserved. | ISSN: 1535-8119 | OCLC: 48219498 | Digital fingerprint: 974a89ee1284e6e92dd256bbfbef3751 (64.237.45.114)