My view on the Green Party

My interview with Tiffany Hayden yesterday got me to thinking about the Green Party. Is it a good thing?

While I (as a libertarian) am miles apart from the Greens on some subjects, there are areas where I can meet them.

For example, I consider climate change as natural as the sun coming up every day, and not some man-made thing, I think I could agree with them on a plan to develop energy independence for America, even if it does involve renewable energy (I would insist it be cost-effective, but I would be willing to work with them).

My reason for energy independence is based on a similar goal both Libertarians and Greens share: Get the U.S. out of the Middle East and Asian wars. But we need to cut our need for fossil fuels from those parts of the world.

Other areas for agreement, from Jill Stein's presidential campaign website (she is the Green Party's candidate):

Break up “too-big-to-fail” banks and democratize the Federal Reserve.... 

End police brutality and mass incarceration...Ensure that communities control their police rather than police controlling our communities, by establishing police review boards and full time investigators to look in to all cases of death in police custody. Demilitarize the police. 

...Expand women’s rights, protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination, defend indigenous rights and lands, and create a welcoming path to citizenship for immigrants. Protect the free Internet, legalize marijuana/hemp, and treat substance abuse as a public health problem, not a criminal problem.

I could easily write several posts on my disagreements with the Greens. That is beside my point here, which is that I see the need for the Green Party to exist. They represent a genuine constituency that is not being properly represented by the Democrats or Republicans, just as the Libertarian Party represents a genuine unrepresented constituency. This country needs four parties, at least, and I believe that the Greens and the Libertarians are best positioned to represent the rest of the country being ignored by the power-hungry Democrats and Republicans.