Booker, Annie, GP Members and Fellow DFLers,
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a life-long DFler, hold party office and am what some would consider a party hack. I also ran for State Representative here in 59A this year and was not endorsed by the DFL. I made a committment to respect the endorsement and will not run this year.
As to the substance of your post, Booker, this is a real head-shaker for me. I don't wish any ill will toward the Green Party, the Independence Party or their members (though I acknowledge that some in my party do). I have long advocated IRV for local elections and, to take it a step further, dual endorsements of single candidates representing multiple parties.
I think DFL frustration with the Green Party has nothing to do with it's activists - progressives lose elections when we are not unified. We ought to be finding creative ways of unifying around a candidate when we can, when that candidate can fairly represent the platforms of multiple parties. Take Paul Wellstone, for example. Though not 100% 'pure' by either DFL or Green standards, didn't he at least beat the hell out of Ed McGaa? And as for Natalie Johnson Lee, I rooted for her all the way because I love the DFL, not despite that love. Crummy DFLers don't do us any favors.
I am one of theose DFLers who hold out hope that Greens will come back to us, or cross over and vote for our candidates, or participate in both parties equally. We need them. And I don't think Greens are Greens's because they're fundamentally flawed individuals - there are legitimate gripes with the DFL. As Democrats, we should always be looking in the mirror when people tell us they don't feel welcome and/or represented.
But there are also legitimate gripes with the Green Party (Ed McGaa) and the perception that ideological purity trumps all other issues. In short, this is not a battle of good versus evil and shouldn't be framed as such The people who show up create the local party. I fundamentally disagree with many in my own party on several important issues - that doesn't mean there's not room for me, it means I must stay and educate and work to bring new people in.
Respectfully,
Dorian Eder Windom Park
Booker Hodges wrote:
The Minneapolis DFL and some of it's members wish to belittle the amount of people who attended the Green Party's Endorsement Convention just shows how arrogant the DFL in Minneapolis is. I mean they control every aspect of our city government so I hope that they would have a large turnout at their convention. The DFL has been hell bent on trying to destroy the third party ever since Johnson-Lee bet Cheeryhomes in 2001. Senator Higgins even tried to get a bill passed in the legislator that would have made it almost impossible for a party such as the Greens and Independence Party to survive. DFLer's don't belittle the Green Party because if you were doing your job maybe they wouldn't be as strong as they are. The DFL's rain in Minneapolis will come to an end soon because people like me are bringing new people into the third party everyday and when I choose to seek office again I will more than likely be running against some DFler who has no respect for the third party. Don't discredit the Green Party because one day you may look up and see that you only have 20 people at an endorsing convention.
Independence Party State Party Chairman Government Affairs
Booker
Near North
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