Clemente embodies real change, the highest form of democratic action
As the saying goes, “In American politics today there are two parties, there’s the conservative party, and the more conservative party.”
For proof, consider how we don’t debate free trade, capitalism, farm subsidies, utility contracts, international trade, class polarization, sales tax or our extensive international influence; both political parties repeatedly vote to support Israel, regressive taxation, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, increased military spending, and ignoring the national deficit and debt.
Yet the media mostly focuses on the differences between the parties, which tend to be differences in political philosophies rather than substantive legislation.
This is why there are calls for change. An alternative to the two parties, the two choices we are presented in most elections.
Rosa Clemente is an advocate of that change. And she’s coming to OU as part of the Amnesty International State Conference. She’ll be speaking at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Sarkeys Energy Center.
She represents activism, which simply means, if you don’t like what’s happening, don’t bitch about it, do something about it.
She is a famous community organizer, getting people in a community to work together for their shared gain.
The more active and involved the community the more opportunities there are for others to learn about and join their cause.
The more people involved, the more likely politicians will support the cause.
The more political parties there are, the more likely some politician will capitalize on the niche that community created and fulfill those views with substantive legislation.
When voters feel their views are represented, they cease being jaded by politics and become involved.
This could potentially lead to higher approval ratings and greater election turnouts, not to mention informed voters – all desirable goals.
However, we could stick with our two-party system of minimal election turnout, and low approval ratings for legislative bodies.
In last year’s presidential election, many voted on the basis of “the lesser of two evils.” That seems to be how people vote these days. Many were excited for Obama, some were excited for McCain, but far too many were voting because they were afraid of the “other guy.”
Clemente ran as the Green Party’s Vice Presidential candidate with Cynthia McKinney. They weren’t on the ballot in Oklahoma or 18 other states.
They didn’t even make it into the “other guy” category.
The theory that a vote for a third party is a wasted vote is absurd. It’s only wasted because of the fear of an opponent, that we’re stealing a vote from one of the “acceptable” parties.
This belief disenfranchises everyone who doesn’t follow the main party lines; everyone who agrees with libertarians, populists or greens doesn’t even receive a representative to vote for in many states.
Many question the legitimacy of elections in which there is only one option, like the recent UOSA presidential election or the election of Saddam Hussein.
This isn’t too different from choosing between two parties that are quite similar. When no option that we genuinely support is presented and no candidate is running who represents our beliefs, are we really given a democratic choice?
The challenge to the legitimacy of voting for third parties becomes a challenge to the legitimacy of the republican democracy in which we live.
If a vote for what I am represented by is a wasted vote, what vote isn’t wasted?
This is why I advocate additional parties and community action.
These are the best ways for individuals who feel their views aren’t represented by politicians to become enfranchised by a system currently ignoring their views.
This is why speakers like Clemente need to come to OU more often. They are advocates of real change.
The most fundamental part of being American: if you don’t like something, change it.
With so many Americans removed from politics, we should listen to people like Clemente the most.
People who speak truth, who say things that challenge us – things we may not want to hear.
There are few among us who are happy with the way things are going. There are fewer, still, who don’t care for fellow Americans, fellow human beings.
For those of us who care about our community, our nation and our world and want to see it become a better place, we need to learn how to organize ourselves and our communities to help improve our communities and our world.
There are few things more democratic than community activism and promotion of minority opinions.
Unfortunately, these topics receive little attention.
Clemente is one of the few people giving it attention.
She will teach us about this type of action, but in the end, it’s up to us to act.
-Max Avery is a political science senior
Activist represents failed third parties, a disservice to American politics
Rosa Clemente’s appearance at OU this weekend offers ample material for us to discuss here. She is an outspoken American journalist, hip-hop activist and a community organizer, and she deserves respect as a responsible and intelligent figure in the public forum, and a dear advocate for those with less all across our country.
But all that aside, she represented the Green Party as vice-presidential nominee in last November’s Presidential election, and I want to take this opportunity to say something about third parties in our national political system.
They don’t work.
Their aims are, as stated, well enough and indeed very genuine. But in practice they dilute the force of the will of the people, and sway elections away from that general will when effective at all.
I am a liberal, though one of moderation and who acts always – I try to – in the interest of the whole, and of reconciliation and hope for the common good. I would be disingenuous to critique the Green Party as the only example of anti-productive and ultimately disenfranchising partisanship.
If not for Ross Perot’s reform movement, we may never have elected President William Jefferson Clinton, who received no majority in either of his presidential contests, love him though I may, and as worthy a president as I believe he was.
And to introduce a fringe interest into a fundamentally two-party system is almost always a doomed proposition, and likewise wrong. It serves to cleave off elements of the majority to work against themselves, and to stymie the will of the people.
The Green Party is a case study in self destruction by the progressive far-left of the American electorate, and the clearest example of their force can be seen in the ubiquitously referenced, but inescapable relevant 2000 election, when Nader’s 2.7 percent of the popular vote, representing undoubtedly similar concerns as Democrat Al Gore, in essence cost Gore the election.
Gore won the popular vote, make no mistake, and he did so by more than 500,000 votes.
But we all know the ultimate result, and little claim can be made that Nader’s nearly 3,000,000 votes would have decisively shown the liberal bent of the electorate.
And the party standing for “grassroots democracy, social justice and equal opportunity ecological wisdom, non-violence” as well as “feminism and gender equity” and “respect for diversity” – that party was responsible for loosing the George W. Bush administration upon this country, and more broadly and painfully, upon the world at large.
Those are all pillars of the Green platform, as devised in their “Ten Key Values,” and they have each been viciously undermined by their very advocates.
What then can be the cause of the Green Party? All that I have stated is widely reported and known, and sincere advocates must be pragmatic ones. The green party’s role has been one of agitation, and insurgent destruction which, while powerful, has proven cruelly and bitterly unnecessary.
Indeed, the dark lurch to the left and abandonment of righteous religious grounding and of anything vaguely conservative that the Democratic Party advanced in the wake of Green competition is only just being recovered from, and to brilliant results.
It doesn’t hurt President Barack Obama to invoke God’s blessings, nor to show how progressives as himself and all across this country, like me and many here in Norman, find political grounding in scripture.
Al Gore’s new life as Nobel Laureate and liberal patron saint of the environment, which he refers to as part of God’s creation, is evidence of a strong old Democrat who wasn’t the same as George Bush, and who has a seminal relationship to the new successful Democrats.
And there are important differences in our two national parties, imperfect as they are. They may be seen by the robust actions taken by our new president, and in contrast to the backward thinking and internecine state of the disloyal opposition in congress.
My attitude towards Clemente is one of respect and solidarity, of thanks for her activism, and interest in her speaking. But the Green Party can be no good to its own ideals, except in endorsing those politicians with a chance, who will best support them.
In the 2000 election, I supported Ralph Nader, a good man of impeccable learning and whose advocacy for the public good throughout his storied career was absolute.
His 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed” was a masterwork of journalism and revolutionized safety regulations to make cars the safe and reliable vehicles they are today.
Modern turning signals and seatbelts are his legacy to the ages, as well as many more vital safeguards of public interest including the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
In that campaign, I was a kid handing out yard signs, bumper stickers and flyers; I cared that all should have a place in the debate and in the public forum. I still have my t-shirt which reads “Bush and Gore just make me wanna Ralph.”
And I was a Young Republican, too.
-Slater Rhea is an English literary and cultural studies and Letters senior.
Rosa Clemente
Amnesty International keynote lecture
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: Sarkeys Energy Center
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RogerG 3 years, 1 month ago
Yes and Slater Rhea is right. Ralph Nader cost Gore the election. Gore would have been a far more science and fact based President than the religious whacko who waged war on gut feelings and talking to a "Higher father" rather than his incredibly astute own father Bush-41. And then ran up deficits and raised non-defense discretionary spending to the highest ever level since LBJ. Rhea is great..Republicans are great
RogerG 3 years, 1 month ago
Third parties are desperately needed to hold the scoundrels accountable. But not gthis sort of third party. Cynthia McKinney is a joke and a farce and a windbag. No one takes thi gasbag seriously. So if Rosa Clemente runs with her, she also is associating herself with a seriously lightweight joker. At least Ross Perot and Ralph Nader had substance.
What we need are people to study issues and become more serious without wasting time on computer games and buying drugs that fund narcoterrorists and islamic fascists. We are the biggest irresponsible drug using nation in the world. Amnesty International sometimes ignores terrorists and only blames governments for actions they have to take to fight terrorists who do not abide by laws and conventional rules of engagement. AI does good work but sometimes is absurd about terrorist rights. Terrorists have no rights. they need to be killed.