Dorian Eder's letter is touching and moving and invites a response. I appreciate in the interests of full disclosure you shared your ethical angst in your commitment to the DFL. In the interests of not boring everyone I won't share all the twists and turns of my progression from street agitator and demonstrator against the War in Vietnam and for Civil Rights to the DFL to third party politics to my current status as an anti-Bush DFL loyalist.
You are concerned with the Green Party endorsement of Ed McGaa against Paul Wellstone. You should remember McGaa was defeated in the Green Party Primary Election, and the man who beat him received less than 1% of the popular vote in the General Election. A very curious thing happened to the Green Party ballot in the General Election. Vote totals grew as they moved down the ballot. Generally, vote percentages fall as they move from the head to the bottom of the ballot. But Green totals were less than 1% for Senate, less than 2% for Governor, 3% for Secretary of State and about 4% for State Auditor. The conclusion I draw from that anomaly is that most Greens crossed over to vote for Mondale for Senate and about half probably voted for the DFL candidate for Governor, etc. Who were these Greens? Would most of them have come out to vote if there wouldn't have been a Green on the ballot? I think it is fair to say that Green candidates actually helped the DFL totals by bringing out voters who might otherwise have stayed home. We will probably never really know for sure, but, I believe, it is reasonable to assume that Greens have given some disaffected voters a reason to go to the polls. There are strong reasons for progressives to unite this year, but please appreciate that when Greens cross over to support the DFL ticket they are abandoning major party status, campaign financing and putting at risk the few brave souls that wear green in their elected office. It could be a terrible price to pay. Let us hope it is worth it. Ed Felien Powderhorn REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
