Support Obama, Vote McKinney? Not a contradiction.

Bill Quigley

29 Oct 2008

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Support Obama, Vote McKinney? Not a contradiction.

by Amee Chew

"Progressives should work
to unite around our own alternative worldview."

The Green Party Presidential ticket of Cynthia McKinney and
Rosa Clemente brings something special and unprecedented to U.S. politics. Not only are they the first all
women-of-color ticket for President and Vice President with ballot access in
most states. These women take racial
justice seriously, and have made strides to put gender at the center of a
progressive agenda. For these two, it's
more than skin deep.

They're the Presidential ticket that talks about amnesty for
undocumented workers, that opposes guest worker programs as riddled with
abuses, because they believe a just immigration reform means addressing the
trade and economic policies fueling poverty and migration. They're the ticket that demands reparations
in the form of federal investment in low-income families and communities of
color, to end racial disparities in health, housing, education, and incarceration. They call for the right of return for
Katrina survivors; an end to prisons for profit, to the War on Drugs. And they speak of reproductive justice - not
just the right to abortion, but actual healthcare access; of freedom from
coerced or uninformed medication and sterilization.

Nowhere do we see Nader, or white male
Third-Party-politics-as-usual, bringing in these issues - this slice on life,
or sensitivity. McKinney, for instance,
points out that Social Security cuts will disproportionately harm women. The Green Party candidates offer to do us
the public service of contesting Palin's brand of "feminism." Let's take them up on it.

We starry-eyed ones know McKinney and Clemente aren't going
to win the Presidency.

But each vote for them contributes towards building
unprecedented ballot access, federal funds, and an inroad to the national
debates, for the Green Party. If
McKinney / Clemente get 5% of the national vote, the Green Party qualifies for
millions of dollars in federal matching funds for 2012 - a significant dent in
the two-party system. Under the
electoral college's winner-takes-all system, not every vote for a major
candidate counts; but by supporting a minor candidate, we can strategically use
our votes to institutionalize a progressive platform.

"We must set our sights
on strategies of significant long-term change."

It will take us more than four years to forge an alternative
to the major parties' imperialism, and their repeated failure to put people
before profit. One important step is
building the institutional vehicles to truly represent our voice. Previously in U.S. history, third parties
have waged organizing efforts that mattered.
The Republicans themselves, originally the party of Abraham Lincoln,
catapulted from minor Third Party to major player in the 19^th
century, by jumping off a backbone of 16 years of organizing by the Free
Soilers - another minor political party with an anti-slavery platform. Just as right-wing organizations in more
recent times have planned ahead how to impact society over several decades, and
invested in sustained efforts, we too must set our sights on strategies of
significant long-term change. McKinney
and Clemente won't be elected now, but they are young enough to be elected in
12 to 20 years - or perhaps their successors, within our lifetimes.

In the words of McKinney herself: "We are in this to build a movement. We are willing to struggle
for as long as it takes to have our values prevail in public policy." She reminds us, "Voters in this country are
scared into not voting their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations. But in
Bolivia and Ecuador and Argentina and Chile and Nicaragua and Spain, and India
and Cote d'Ivoire and Haiti, voters were not afraid to vote their hopes and dreams,
and guess what. Their dreams came true. Ours can, too."

If those of us who hold their politics don't support them,
who will? It's time for us to say,
these brave women - and those who follow in their footsteps - represent the
future that we want for politics in this country.

Stop the blackout

On a very practical level, supporting McKinney / Clemente is
supporting their right to simply be heard.

While it's easy to recognize that corporate media has
excluded McKinney and Clemente from their election coverage, progressive and
liberal media have also contributed to the blackout on these women. The Daily Show's election website,
Indecision2008.com, prominently tracks Nader and minor (male) conservative
candidates, such as Ron Paul and libertarian Bob Barr - but not McKinney. Perhaps not surprising from a male-dominated
show that dismisses Palin as a VPILF?

In August, AntiWar.com featured a line-up of McCain, Obama,
Nader, and Barr. Incidentally,
reflecting a common trend in much progressive media, over 80% of the site's
columnists and regular contributors are male.
When challenged by readers about McKinney's absence, the editors
explained that both she, and ultra-rightwing, xenophobic,
anti-abortion Chuck Baldwin - who seeks to cut all federal investment in
communities of color - were omitted.
Not due to bias against McKinney as a black woman, but because, an
editor flippantly wrote, both of the candidates are "pretty perfect" on foreign
policy.[1] If McKinney's stance was so perfect, why
wouldn't the site choose to promote her as a standard-bearer? And why instead place her on equal footing
with a racist, sexist Baldwin? Besides
not considering economic inequality, immigration policy or internal
colonization as relevant to imperialism, AntiWar.com must simply have not
viewed her as a serious contender.

"Why has McKinney had more trouble getting attention from
left organizations and institutions compared to Nader."

But why has McKinney had more trouble getting attention from
left organizations and institutions compared to Nader, Green Party candidate in
2000? After all, she, too, champions
universal healthcare under a single-payer system; progressive taxation;
repealing free trade agreements and abolishing the anti-union Taft-Hartley
act. She takes a stronger stance
against war and occupation, urging an immediate and orderly withdrawal from
both Iraq and Afghanistan. And she has
vocally opposed the bail out.

A few feminist, and gender-conscious progressive sites have
offered the women a nod. But while the
National Organization for Women has acknowledged Palin's candidacy as historic,[2]
it has failed to mention the Green Party's groundbreaking women-of-color ticket
- at all.

Progressive organizations have a responsibility to help
counter racism and sexism, rather than participate in it. The media may justify its coverage based on
candidates' popularity and relevance to viewers; yet it also plays a key role
in shaping our perceptions - in McKinney's case, by allowing us to even know
she exists, and what views she holds.
Intentions aside, the failure of progressive organizations to cover
McKinney amounts to an information blackout. Rather than uphold the institutionalized racism and sexism that
exclude McKinney and Clemente from public discourse, progressive media must
support a progressive consciousness by covering our political allies.

A concerted front

There is not a contradiction between supporting Obama's
victory over McCain, and spreading the word on McKinney - because we
believe her politics should be included in the debates; and believe all voters
should be aware she and the Greens exist as an option.

There is not a contradiction between spending time to
campaign for Obama in key swing states, and pledging your own vote to
McKinney - particularly in Democratic strongholds such as California,
Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Oregon, or
Washington, where Obama will win landslides; or Republican states where McCain
is assured of victory.

As an example, in 2004, Kerry beat Bush in Massachusetts 62%
to 32%, by over 700,000 votes. 5% of
the vote would have been around 140,000 ballots, but third party candidates
actually got around 1% altogether, or 27,000.[3] This election, 35 states are not
swing states.

While we might divide up our work, we can back each other in
a larger strategy to shift politics to the left.

This election, the Third Party candidates, from left to
far-right, caught attention when they gathered around a common anti-war,
pro-civil liberties, and anti-corporate welfare platform. But let's be clear about our strategy. Progressives should work to unite around our
own alternative worldview - promoting an ideology to challenge the dominant
narrative, not simply a patchwork of reforms.
When we are pigeon-holed into single issues, our movements are fractured
and weaker for not being able to articulate a holistic vision. We shouldn't be working to build up the
Libertarian version of free market hell, or Constitution-party xenophobia -
let's take concerted action to make our own party and institutions of change.[4]

In Boston, we have been organizing film screenings of
"American Blackout," to draw attention to the stolen elections of 2000 and
2004, as well as the strategic capture of the voting system by right-wing
forces. The film documents McKinney's
candidacies as a Georgia Congresswomen, and her outspoken support for electoral
reform and voting rights. It also
details a Republican-organized cross-over campaign to oust McKinney in the
Democratic primary election: Republicans stormed the Democratic ballot box to
cast their votes for a conservative Democrat they had funded against McKinney,
because they knew they couldn't win running a Republican in the general
election.

The right-wingers have meticulously learned to rig the
electoral system in their favor. Let's
take it back.

Vote truth this year, and work for it next.

Amee Chew can be reached at hachew@gmail.com. She thanks Thomas Chen, Catherine-Mercedes
Judge, and Kaveri Rajaraman for their input on this article.

1
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2008/08/17/sexism-in-the-peace-movement-is-alive-and-well-antiwarcom-invisibilizes-presidential-candidate-cynthia-mckinney/

2 http://www.now.org/news/note/090508.html

3 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/elections/2004/ma/

4 A Green Party platform of the future might include
valuing women and children by repairing the scant welfare system; providing
good jobs through subsidized childcare and home help; redressing the poverty of
elderly women without pensions. Women's
labor in the private sphere remains undervalued and an invisible issue to most
political parties.

[1]
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2008/08/17/sexism-in-the-peace-movement-is-alive-and-well-antiwarcom-invisibilizes-presidential-candidate-cynthia-mckinney/

[2]
http://www.now.org/news/note/090508.html

[3]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/elections/2004/ma/

[4] A Green
Party platform of the future might include valuing women and children by
repairing the scant welfare system; providing good jobs through subsidized
childcare and home help; redressing the poverty of elderly women without
pensions. Women's labor in the private
sphere remains undervalued and an invisible issue to most political parties.

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