Could someone explain to me what this group is all about?
I’ve always heard things, but most of the people I’ve known, write this sect off as a tree-hugging group of extremists—people who’d let a person die before someone did cosmetic testing on animals.
I know there are few in here, so, in your own words, could you please describe to me what your party is about? What makes it different from the other main parties?
ah! if I could only find the article the talked about this one Socialist country that had 1/3 of it’s population calling in sick everday…they make nearly as much money if they call in sick, so a third of them just don’t goto work :(
As I understand it, Socialism works in the early generations, then the later generations take it for granted and it starts to fall apart. It all comes down to the motivation needed to get out of bed in the morning and goto work. If you don’t need to work to stay alive, then why should you? This is where Socialism fails… and where, I guess, Capitalism succeeds. If you work, you are rewarded with a lifestyle that is relative to your job. Getting a good job requires the right education, and in this country you should be afforded the means to get to where your ambition takes you.
The point about education is debatable…Whether or not kids are being given the proper opportunities to attain a good education is an argument I cannot participate in. I think the right people to debate that are people who’ve seen the best and the worst of America’s public schools, and the teacher’s who are without a political agenda. These might be one in the same, not sure, but let’s not start talking about that until someone tells me what the Green Party is all about?!
What about Sweden!?! It’s extremely wealthy, highly educated, and has an extremely effective welfare system. The greatest Social Democracy on the planet.
Yes, it’s nice there. I know several people from my internet movie-sharing days that live there.
Not sure if you knew about this, but there were demonstrations that turned deadly a few years back. Actually, I’m not sure if they turned deadly, but it was bloody.
Yes, Sweden is very nice. They have free high-speed internet :D (though, the last time I talked with one of my buddies from there, he thought that they’d be discontinuing that service in his area), and everything seems to be going along fine there (with exception of those violent demonstrations a few years back. I’m unaware of whether or not those demonstrations are still continuing today, but they were scenes of revolution).
The problem is, not everyone in America would work hard if they knew they didn’t have to. Cradle to Grave isn’t for every country, especially one as culturally diverse as America.
I admit it would be nice to have Socialism, I just don’t think it would work out. I don’t think US citizens would appreciate it. Look at what happened with “The Projects”...Look at the welfare mothers who keep having kids just to get more money from the government. Look at our obesity rate, we’re the laughing stock of the world when it comes to our fat people. We’re too lazy to get in shape to save our lives, and you think we’re going to be motivated to work if we don’t have to?
America just isn’t the place for it :( I love your Utopian vision of what America should be, but I just don’t believe it would ever work here. You can’t convince the majority of our population that if we all work together, we’ll achieve something totally outstanding. We aren’t all team players. Besides, you have people here that are looking for the “American Dream”; that anything is possible if you try to make it happen. People that are looking for comfort and prosperity. People who want to be the best. People who want to be greatest. People who lack any idea of how they are going to achieve their goals. You’re trying to tell me that these people won’t take something for nothing? Come on, we’re the poster-child for “Something for Nothing”...In no other country do they play more infomercials where you can guarantee the offer will be doubled or a payment taken away….“live”. We love our freebies 😛
It’s just fundamentally flawed if you’re trying to implement it in a place such as America…
I agree Socialism wouldn’t work in the US. One reason Sweden is so damn prosperous as well as potent in implementing social reform and welfare was because they started before the first World War, they more or less initiated reforms that other first-world countries didn’t incorporate until after world war II. I think the main reason is that they more or less avoided both world wars and were able to incorporate the positives of western europe while still avoiding the iron curtain in the east. Norther Europe is one nice place to live if you don’t mind high taxes.
Again: where are the nader fans? Although I guess it is 3:30 in the morning…
I’d like to but I have class tomorrow as well as about 200 pages of reading. Don’t ever become a history major, you’ll spend every day reading and then reading more until your eyes fall out.
I am a major fan of the History Channel 😛 I’d really like to get History Channel International… maybe next month :D
Hopefully you can reach that higher level of objectivity you were talking about, because you’ll probably be someone the rest of us will look to in 20 or 30 years and ask, “How did that go again?”
i am not a member of the green party (or any party for that matter) but for this election, I can’t fathom voting for Bush or Kerry and I am therefore voting for nader. I am voting for Nader also because he believes in a lot of matters that are important to me and whether or not he has proved it, he believes in lot of other things that are important to me as well.
taken from votenader.com:
On equal rights for Gays and Lesbians:
Ralph supports full equal rights for gays and lesbians. While civil unions are a step in the right direction under current federal and state law they do not afford equal rights. There are 1,049 federal rights that go only with marriage. In addition, at the state level, a civil union is only recognized in the state where it occurs, while marriage, and all the rights that go with it, is recognized in all the states. Thus, the only way to ensure full equal rights is to recognize same-sex marriage.
On the war in Iraq:
The quagmire of the Iraq war and occupation could have been averted and needs to be ended expeditiously, replacing US forces with a UN peacekeeping force, prompt supervised elections and humanitarian assistance before we sink deeper into this occupation, with more U.S. casualties, huge financial costs, and diminished US security around and from the Islamic world. The faulty and fabricated rationale for war has the US in a quagmire. Already more than $155 billion has been spent, adding to huge Bush deficits, when critical needs are not being met at home. We should not be mired in the occupation of Iraq risking further upheavals when our infrastructure, schools and health care are deteriorating. Four years of free public college and university tuition for all students could be paid for by $155 billion.
On election reform:
Money dominates expensive campaigns, mainly waged on television in sound bite format. The cost of campaigns creates a stranglehold making politics a game for only the rich or richly funded. Major electoral reforms are needed to ensure that every vote counts, all voters are represented through electoral reforms like instant run-off voting, none-of-the-above options, and proportional representation, non-major party candidates have a chance to run for office and participate in debates, and that elections are publicly financed.
On media bias:
The mass media in the United States is extremely concentrated, and the messages that they send are too broadly uniform. Six global corporations control more than half of all mass media in our country: newspapers, magazines, books, radio and television. Our democracy is being swamped by the confluence of money, politics and concentrated media. We must reclaim our democracy from the accelerating grip of big-money politics and concentrated corporate media. This requires real campaign finance reform, which means public financing of public elections; some free access to ballot qualified candidates on television and radio; vigorous antitrust regulation and enforcement; ending broadcasters’ free licensed use of the public airwaves; and the reversion of some organized time on our publicly owned airwaves to establish audience-controlled radio and TV networks to ensure the diversity of voices and solutions necessary for a really free press and a true civic democracy.
on the federal budget:
The United States needs a redirected federal budget that adequately funds the crucial priorities like infrastructure, transit and other public works, schools, clinics, libraries, forests, parks, sustainable energy and pollution controls. The budget should move away from the deeply documented and criticized (by the US General Accounting Office, retired Admirals and Generals and others) wasteful, redundant ?military industrial complex? as President Eisenhower called it, as well as corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy that expand the divide between the luxuries of the rich and the necessities of the poor and middle class.
on universal health care:
The Nader Campaign favors replacing our fragmented, market-based system with a single-payer health plan - where the government finances health care, but keeps the delivery of health care to private non-profits, and allows free choice of doctors and hospitals for patients.
these are the topics that matter to me the most and out of the 3 candidates (2 of them arent even an option because of an unbelievably scarred election run so far for both sides), Nader is the best choice. I live in a democratic state where Kerry is going to win so I am able to give my vote to Nader to support the third party and a man who has a conscience on his shoulders. Its not a vote for Bush by voting for Nader for me, its a vote in the right direction and by me voting for Nader, I am hopefully giving the third party more of a chance to ever succeed in politics.
I don’t know all the beliefs of the green party but thats also because I hate parties, I want to study the man running, not the party he runs for. The party he runs for won’t be sitting in the oval office if he actually wins.
I hope you guys actually read my post since I feel I chose the important aspect of what Nader believes in and you give it an honest shot before dismissing it off.
[quote author=“munkyxtc”]Thanks for the post doug—ya beat me too it 😊
no problem, i’ve basically been waiting for someone to ask this question. i give minijigga a lot of credit for wanting to know, i wish more people would at least consider a third party before immediately dismissing it.
um.. Nadar is running for the independent party this time around…last time he was with the green party but that is besides the point I just felt like I needed to correct that…. and for the most party Nadar is an ideal candidate for me. I hear everything he says and I find myself agreeing. It is a shame he has no chance of winning. Between Bush & Kerry we are screwed royally. I’m moving to Canada.
im gonna move to my own private island and be my own president/king/dictator/emperor/ruler of all things holy.its gonna be my version of pretoria, or whatever peter(family guy) called his sovereign land. man was that a great episode. im voting for peter griffin for president!
Thanks for posting all that info. It was good to get some other views in here besides me and mini fighting. I agree with just about everything Nader has to say actually. A lot of it just makes good sense. I’m still upset that they don’t allow him in the presidential debates which I think is robbing Americans of the opportunity to have a 3 party system. I forgot that the Greens dumped Nader this year as well. I’ll have to go do some research and find out why.
[quote author=“munkyxtc”]I can’t wait until election day—I’m gonna do my best to vote like 500 times—
Haha…if only you could. I would make Nebraska vote Democrat for the first time in its history. Republicans would have a stroke and think the midwest was falling like the communist dominoe theory. We’d be getting bombed within a week.
