"Beyond the Duopoly: How Green Politics Offers Hope in a World on the Brink of Ecological Collapse"

The climate crisis is a specific manifestation of a more general ecological crisis facing humanity and impacting all living creatures. Scientists are warning about the rapid progression of a Sixth Mass Extinction event. Related to that, it’s alarming that the bumblebee population, a critical pollinator species, has declined 90% over the last three decades. In his 2002 book The Future of Life Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University calculated that, if the current rate of human disruption of the biosphere continues, one-half of Earth's higher lifeforms will be extinct by 2100. This is immoral in its essence, but it will also greatly affect the quality of human life.

After the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 an environmental movement emerged having the goal of addressing the catastrophic ecological disruption caused by our irresponsible practices and our exploitative economic system. Green politics is the electoral expression of that movement.

Green parties have been established in over 90 countries worldwide. Their candidates are able to get elected to parliaments in most of those countries and they’ve participated in governing coalitions in almost 20 countries. But in the United States progress toward new thinking and badly needed new directions is impeded by an electoral system that limits voters to the dreary prospect of only two significant parties, both of which are stuck in retrograde policies and ideologies.

Using ranked-choice voting or proportional representation, multi-party electoral systems in almost all other democracies are able to accommodate the full spectrum of the ideological rainbow: liberal parties, conservative parties, environmentalists, socialists, nationalists, libertarians, etc. In this country the two establishment parties work hard to maintain the status quo and suppress any competition outside of their duopoly. And then they have the audacity to chastise the Green Party for supposedly not growing fast enough to be taken seriously. What actually is notable is how we’ve managed to endure for decades under the circumstances of an antagonistic and suppressive electoral system.

Pollsters report that over 70% of voters say they’d like to see more voices in the system and more choices on their ballots; so initiatives for the development of alternative parties are launched on a regular basis. Almost none are able to get a foothold. Have you heard of the Citizens Party, the Labor Party, Natural Law Party, Reform Party, Progressive Party, Justice Party, Peoples Party? These were initiatives that tried and failed to get established just during the last thirty years. The Green Party endures because of growing recognition that our distinctive program -- centered on ecological sustainability, social justice, peace, and the revitalization of local community life -- presents a compelling alternative to the programs and policies of the status quo parties.

The Green Party is here to stay and we say to the Democrats: Instead of vilifying us and wringing your hands about the so-called “spoiling” potential of alternative candidates, you should work with us to reform the electoral system so that the long-suffering American electorate is finally able to enjoy a full multi-party democracy.