Why I'm Voting For McCourt

After the jump, my last-minute attempt to drum up some Green votes.

UPDATE: My mighty power to turn out the vote has been called into question. With 80% of precincts in, it looks like the Greens failed to get their 50,000 votes. God damn it.


In his voter's guide, erstwhile FOLB Gatemouth wrote that

Don’t Vote for the Greens Either: By my count, I’ve now published 13 pieces urging people not to vote for either the WFP or the Independence Party (IP) (this piece, which links to all but one of the others, should be sufficient). However, the fact that the Gatemouth/NY Times anathema on parties which practice "fusion" (a high minded term for what is usually called "extortion") does not extend to parties which nominate their own candidates, doesn’t mean we should give a line on a ballot to folks who’ve proven themselves a public nuisance. Every Friday night, my Shabbos ritual includes a few minutes of silence as I watch the "News Hour" list our latest dead in Iraq. If Al Gore was President, these people would be alive; if the Green Party didn’t exist, Al Gore would be President. Do the math. The Green Party consistently nominates really interesting eccentrics for Governor (Malachy McCourt won my heart when he did a one man show as Geroge Washington Plunkett; Stanley Aronowitz is married to the World's Greatest Left Wing Writer; Al Lewis was Grandpa), but that doesn't begin to compensate for the loss of blood and treasure for which they bear responsibility.THE ONLY GREEN WORTH VOTING FOR IS ADAM! (OK Bouldin, you owe me dinner). .

My response might be a little repetitive for anyone who's been carefully following my comments elsewhere, but since that set of readers consists of approximately two, no big whoop.

Q: What does the New York State Green Party have to do with Ralph Nader?

A: Nothing.

By GM's tortured logic, one would never vote for any Democrat, since the craven DNC bears a lot more direct and indirect responsibility for Iraq than the Green Party of New York State does.

When I recently interviewed the Green's Lt. Gov. candidate, she disavowed Nader and said she "couldn't disagree more" with his characterization of feminist and gay movements as "gonadal politics." Nader was never a real Green. He was a top-down, anti-grassroots pseudo-Green who coopted the party for his own vanity run. Local Greens in NY are ashamed to be associated with him (especially his odious '04 run, when he actually sought to get the Green endorsement but not run as a Green).

What the Green Party of New York State is really about is New Paltz, for example. There, the Green village officials have officiated over gay marriages, started heating municipal buildings with solar panels, and experimented with innovative waste management systems. And that's not even taking into account the Greens elsewhere in the state on school boards and in smaller offices.

If Malachy McCourt gets 50,000 votes, Green candidates in local races won't have to meet the undue burden of gathering thousands of signatures to get on the ballot. Since Greens don't accept any corporate donations, it's very difficult for them to finance that signature-gathering.

Voting Green is not throwing away your vote for some hippie dippy do-nothings. It's supporting the only third party in New York State that's actually building a grassroots movement and making a real impact on New York State.

Voting for the Greens for Governor (and then Adam Green for Comptroller) is the singular thing motivating me to vote. Every other race is a fait accompli, but your vote will actually make a difference if you vote Green (and then Green).