Greens, Dems, Poly scientists, I need your help.

[never cry wolf]

I have a wonderfully intelligent and compassionate 14 year old daughter in 8th grade whom I am schooling in progressive thought. In her honors social studies class they are holding mock campaigns, debates and eventually an election. She was selected by her fellow students to be on of the 3 candidates while the other kids assume various campaign roles for their respective parties. This selection as a candidate was made prior to determining who would represent which party.

I was hoping she would be a Dem but she was chosen as the 3rd party candidate, yesterday it was determined that that 3rd party would be the Greens. (Thank God she didn't end up repuke or liberatarian!!)

Anyway, that is the situation and here is my problem. I have only really been actively educating myself politically since the debacle of 2000. I have always voted for Dems but never really dug into it until our country was stolen. Therefore I lack knowledge on the Greens. About all I know is that they are left of the Dems and stress environmental concerns. Can anyone better explain their party philosophy or provide me with links that can? Also, while I can provide her with TONS of material to rip the repugs a new one what issues would a Green have to debate against a Dem?

I appreciate everyones time in advance. I will be sending my daughter a link to this thread later on today, so please y'all say hi to her as well, her name is Jessica.

Jessica, after you read the info here, please check out the rest of the site, you may even consider joining, I'll introduce you. It is populated with a plethora of intelligent and informed people and is a font of wonderful information. They are also, for the most part, very nice and helpful folks. Oh yeah, I love you and am very proud of you!!

[never cry wolf]

1. Anyone, please??

:kick: for my daughter

[nofurylike]

2. http://www.gp.org/ n/t

[nofurylike]

3. sorry, not a liink

http://www.gp.org/

http://www.greenparty.org/

[never cry wolf]

4. Thanks....n/t

[felonious thunk]

5. Kind of a loaded question on DU, but I'll take a stab

Basically, she'll probably want to say that there isn't much difference between a Democrat and a Republican. That's pretty standard third party strategy. Libertarians say it from the right, to make Republicans look liberal, and Greens say it from the left, to make Democrats look conservative.

In the case of the Greens, the main argument against Democrats would be that they are just as beholden to corporate donations as Republicans are, and that issues like environmental protection and workers rights aren't any more likely to be fixed with a Democrat than a Republican. (Personally, I don't believe that for one second, but that's the argument anyway.)

[never cry wolf]

6. Thanks

Makes sense to me.

[info being]

7. Read the 10 key values

http://www.gp.org/tenkey.html

The main difference is that, because they don't take money from special interest, they actually mean what they say while the Dems mostly just say what sounds good to Progressives and then take care of Corporations.

[Iverson]

8. thoughts for your daughter

First of all, I wish her all the best.

She has to decide how much detail she can afford to study. In terms of Green electoral politics in the US, she should get familiar with the ten key values, maybe printing out a copy. Here's a link to those:

http://www.gpus.org/tenkey.html

Some will be easier to grasp, some less easy, but at 14 she should have no trouble with the basic philosophical thrust.

With those in mind, she should be prepared to articulate why the Greens are substantively different from Democrats and Republicans. Slogans just won't cut it, and in real life the Greens I know don't do that garbage. I recommend focusing on these issues, but of course it's her call:
- bottom-up organization
- opposition to economic globalization (IMF, WTO, NAFTA, etc.)
- opposition to war in general and Iraq invasion in particular

on edit:
Maybe also check to see if there's a local Green chapter near you. I'm sure that they'd be happy to send her any materials she might want.

[never cry wolf]

9. Thanks alot

Very good advice. I am beginning to think my views are oriented quite green, if only they had a chance in hell of kicking out the pResident. I wish we had a parlimentary system.

I am sure, knowing her, she will go into great detail and be the knowledgible one in her class.

[neuvocat]

10. Not an official site but...

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

BTW the Greens aren't a bunch of Dem haters. I happen to be a Green.

[never cry wolf]

11. Thanks

No, I never thought of Greens as Dem haters. I see the relationship as more like cousins.

[never cry wolf]

12. One more unabashed kick

:kick:

[never cry wolf]

13. OK, I lied, this is the last kick.

I am gonna email this thread to my daughter now, everyone please say hi!! :hi:

[Iverson]

14. hi, and one more thing

You didn't say what kind of deadline she's facing. Would it do any good to mention now?

[never cry wolf]

15. She is on top of things

She has a policy paper due either late this week or next week. They should have a few weeks of debate before the election.

[never cry wolf]

16. I really, really hate kicking my own thread

but it's for my daughter. Any more thoughts or ideas are appreciated and thanks to all that replied or even read.