permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

At 02:50 PM 10/23/02 -0400, you wrote:

> Ecological Wisdom,
> Grassroots Democracy,
> Social
> Justice/Economic Opportunity,
> NonViolence,
> Decentralization,
> Community-based Economics,
> Feminism,
> Respect for Diversity,
> Personal/Global Responsbility,
> Future Focus/Sustainability
>
> What a platform!  The big parties have nothing like it!
> Its not about money, charisma, or power - its about
> the ISSUES.

Well in fact we do have a platform very much like this in the democratic 
party, it just gets pushed aside by the realities of getting elected and 
governing.  As a DP delegate this year in WI I found it a fine place to 
discuss issues and try and shape the agenda, and 2 of 3 of out governor 
candidates could have embraced much of your green platform.  Guess 
what?  They lost in the primary to the more centrist candidate.  What the 
greens fail to grasp is that the voters (who granted do not include those 
too fed up to bother) are not ready for the lite socialism and hard green 
positions of the GP.  I spend my efforts trying to bend the democrats to be 
more green, more liberty oriented and more electable.  There is nothing 
wrong with the DP that new faces and ideas can't fix, and they still win 
half the elections.  A bigger challenge is knocking the GOP into shape or 
exposing the lies it peddles.  I would love it if we had a situation where 
the greens were the left, the DP the right and the GOP irrelevant.
M


Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM