Green Party US has announced that 2010 campaigns will start after this year’s annual meeting. Next year’s elections could be a great time for Green congressional candidates to work out a set of unity points, aimed at popularizing Green solutions as a better alternative to current policies. Next year’s elections may well be the biggest opportunity to win over new voters in the Green Party’s 25-year history. We should be preparing to earn their support, and to translate it into sustainable growth.
The European Green Party recently increased its representation in the EU Parliament by 44%, despite the oft-repeated assertion that “voters won’t care about an environmental party in the middle of a financial crisis.” The European Greens turned this expectation on its head by touting a continent-wide economic platform called the “Green New Deal”, with the slogan “Think big – vote Green.”
In the same vein, the UN released a report shortly after the 2008 financial meltdown claiming that a “Green New Deal” – “to promote a massive redirection of investment away from the speculation that has caused the bursting ‘financial and housing bubbles’ and into job-creating programmes to restore the natural systems that underpin the world economy” – could save the world economy. Meanwhile, in New York City, Green mayoral candidate Billy Talen has made the Green New Deal a key part of his platform : “The emerging green economy should be an engine for neighborhood job creation, harnessed to elicit bottom-up solutions and entrepreneurial opportunities. We must also scale up the proposed retrofit programs, and meet the President’s targets for energy conservation and emission reductions.”
This month leading up to the 2009 GPUS annual meeting is high time for American Greens to work out a Green New Deal for our country.
Suggested proposals for the Green New Deal:
- Institute a single-payer “Medicare for all” healthcare system
- Enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax, with all revenues returned to taxpayers as payroll tax cuts
- Institute free public higher education
- Enact a federal living wage, indexed to inflation, and repeal the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act
- Re-regulate the financial sector and enact a Tobin tax of 0.25% on all cross-border financial transactions
- Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana
- Cut military spending by at least 50% and invest the dividend into public works programs to:
- give America a world-class public transportation system
- retrofit 10 million homes with energy-conserving insulation
- power America with 50% renewable energy by 2020, 100% by 2030
The Green New Deal would set Greens apart as a clear alternative to politics-as-usual; no other national party is calling for this legislation. The policies would form not a comprehensive platform, but rather a set of economics-related “big ideas” that all Green congressional candidates could sign on to.
The Green New Deal would show voters that Greens are serious about fixing the economy and putting it on a sustainable footing. It would also provide a taste of the forward-thinking Green platform, thereby increasing interest in the party. By publicizing the Green New Deal using new media, we can bypass traditional gatekeepers and take our message directly to the voters. Without a presidential election occupying everyone’s attention, 2010 could be a great year to build the Green Party by promoting our Green New Deal slate.
What do you think? What policies would you include in the Green New Deal for America?
8 responses so far ↓
1 Ron // Jun 23, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I LIKE IT!
I don’t know if I agree with some of the specifics yet (I need to do some more research) but I definitely agree that it is time for a Green Political Resurgence in America and it needs a unified message such as this to support the candidates and send a simple and clear message to the voters of what the Green Party offers.
I would call it the “New Green Deal” perhaps, to differentiate it from the green washing occurring at all levels of government and media.
I like a simple list, and I think this is a great start.
I think we need to better articulate our message on economic issues, particularly reassuring small business owners that we aren’t going to tax the shit out of them. We have to show how we can support them through investing in Main Street.
But on another note - we need an effective means of recruiting good candidates to run for office, candidates who can speak clearly and convincingly on how the Green Plan is worth voting for.
We should be talking about this a whole lot more!
2 Jonathan Cook // Jun 24, 2009 at 8:12 am
Great idea - and I think that a focus on congressional elections in 2010 is essential for the Greens.
I suggest an addition from Jeremy Cloward’s campaign for the special congressional election in California’s 10th district (jeremycloward.com): Child care. Those of us who are parents know that child care is intricately related to the ability to work. Too many jobs bring in only enough money to pay for the child care they require - and not very high quality child care at that.
Cloward suggests a two-thirds reduction in the military budget, which still leaves our military at a rate of spending higher than that of China, the next biggest spender. The savings could go to pay for universal day care, provided through an expansion of local public school systems that already exist.
I like the phrase “Green New Deal” - as it will bring in people searching for the phrase New Deal.
3 greg gerritt // Jun 24, 2009 at 9:22 am
I would focus on healing ecosystems as a way to revitalize the economy. Reforest the country, promote local agriculture so that we no longer ship food 3000 miles from field to table, and revitalize our fisheries.
On an unrelated note The Green Candidates Resource Center is ready to help any Green candidates gearing up for elections. http://greencandidatesresourcecenter.com/
4 Dave Schwab // Jun 25, 2009 at 11:32 am
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I posted this first on Green Change, so if you’re interested you can check out the discussion there as well:
http://network.greenchange.org/blogs/8237-bringing-the-green-new-deal-to-america
I’ve considered alternative names (New Green Deal, Green Deal, etc) and I think Green New Deal works best for a few reasons. It has the best flow. It ties in with the European Greens’ plan, reinforcing the idea of Green as an international movement. Finally, it taps into the history of the New Deal and ever so subtly lays claim to the Rooseveltian legacy.
“I think we need to better articulate our message on economic issues, particularly reassuring small business owners that we aren’t going to tax the shit out of them. We have to show how we can support them through investing in Main Street.”
Agreed.
Jonathan and Greg - I like your suggestions. Here’s a revised version of a couple points, taking into account the feedback I’ve gotten:
-Institute free public higher education and universal daycare
…
-Cut military spending by at least two-thirds and invest the dividend into programs to:
1. give America a world-class public transportation system
2. retrofit 10 million homes with energy-conserving insulation
3. power America with 50% renewable energy by 2020, and 100% by 2030
4. fund a Civilian Conservation Corps to restore and conserve natural ecosystems
5 Jack Lindblad, 2010 Green candidate for 39th California Assembly District // Jun 29, 2009 at 4:30 pm
folks, being the Green Party whose central focus is ecological wisdom, we ought to reflect in public policy what the best science is telling us.
here’s part of my campaign plank in my run to win the 2010 contest for 39th California Assembly District.
—
Science says we must make the most of the time left until 2015 to transition to a 100% renewable energy economy
• Nobel-prize-winning physicist and US Energy Secretary Steven Chu on climate change: “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what will happen. We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going, either.” (2009)
• Only six years left for global warming target: UN panel chief Pachauri says to avoid looming climate catastrophe.
• Key to meeting the July 2015 deadline is transformation to renewable energy, conservation, consumption reduction, a steady-state economy replacing the ‘growth’ economy.
• Facing state government shutdown, the state of California’s yawning budget meltdown and economic, societal and political collapses provide telling evidence to scupper the failed “growth-economy” model and to adopt a steady-state economic model, to meet the challenges of lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2015 and lowered consumption to meet the imperative to transform to a 100% renewable energy economy by 2015 - to avoid catastrophic sea-level rise, desertification, water shortages, acidifying oceans, agricultural collapse, and mass urban populations turned to millions of climate refugees.
• Nobel prize-winning tmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, “I would like to be optimistic that we’ll survive, but I’ve got no good reason to be. In order to be safe, we would have to reduce our carbon emissions by 70 per cent by 2015. We are currently putting in 3 per cent more each year.”
6 Jack Lindblad, 2010 Green Candidate for 39th California Assembly District // Jun 29, 2009 at 4:34 pm
oops, I was wanting to direct to my Architectural practice website AND my winning Assembly Campaign site
the above link will take you to the Lindblad Assembly Campaign and http://lindbladarchitects.com takes you to my award-winning Architectural Practice site
7 Jack Lindblad, 2010 Green Candidate for 39th California Assembly District // Jun 29, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I’ve been running and campaigning on a “Green New Deal” since my 8% showing in the 2008 Assembly contest.
You can find it at: Blogger: User Profile: Jack Lindblad, Green Party Candidate for California Assembly, 39th District - Architect - Private Practitioner
quoted here:
I’m about advancing the Green Ten Key Values of a Green New Deal in the California Legislature, and in so doing, help manage multiple collapses, mitigate and adapt to ecological collapse’s worst catastrophes, to revitalize watershed, to build a relocalized, bioregional, steady state economy - arising from the financial meltdown and ‘Great Disruption’. Repudiating the “business-as-usual” growth economy, whether in politics or my architecture practice, will lessen the likelihood of human extinction. Being a effective squeaky wheel in advocacies for health-care patient rights against Big Insurance, for local water reliance, successful in the Panorama City commercial area revitalization and in tipping the balance against the Mayor of Los Angeles thwarted solar power grab has prepared me to be my District’s grassroots advocate in the State Legislature. I was the only Green Party Candidate running for State-wide Legislative Office in 2008 and by learning from what worked in my 2008 effort, the Lindblad Campaign is ramping up commensurate to win in 2010!
8 Jack Lindblad // Jun 30, 2009 at 10:59 pm
what I intended to say: I’ve been running and campaigning on a “Green New Deal” -all during my 2008 campaign and- since my 8% showing in the 2008 Assembly contest.
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