In 2016, I left the Greens to become a Dem so that I could caucus for Bernie. By that point, I'd been a Green for more [View all]

[GPV]

than two decades. My dad was heavily involved in the party, and was running for the Maine State Legislature when he passed away. I was drawn into the leadership email chain to receive condolences, but even there I saw evidence of in-fighting. (The Greens of the early days had been more stable, less prone to attaching people like Jill Stein to it.) You other old-timers will remember that I started out here as GreenPartyVoter. I wasn't trying trying to stir up trouble. At that time I thought the left-leaning parties should work together to minimize the damage caused by ** and crew. But I can't tell you how many people freaked out over my username, saying it was my fault that Gore lost. That Nader was crazy for wanting to burn it all down and rebuild.

Which brings me to what I see here today. Lots of infighting, not just with us but within the Dem party. Absence of strong leadership. A sense of disconnection from the top and the base, except when money and votes are needed. The top is always around to secure those. It was hair-on-fire, don't let Trump get elected before. But now that he has been, aside from a few individuals, the frantic pressure from pre-election seems largely absent. And while I don't expect leadership to tip their hand to the Repubs, stronger reassurances that they've got this would be nice.

To bring this full circle, I'm just struck by echoes of the past. Watching the Greens drift ever further from their potential, splintering. The fiasco of the late removal of Biden from the ticket. And there are posts here exclaiming that we should let Trumple-thin-skin burn it all down now so we can rebuild later. I don't know. Maybe a system can only drift so far off center before it collapses. I guess it's like the climate catastrophe that way. Human beings don't see the crisis looming over them, either ignoring it or taking pointless baby steps-- feel good now but utterly useless in the long run green washing.

I guess I'm feeling like we're at a loss. Not just because of politics, but culturally. I work in education at the elementary level. There is a fundamental difference in this fully on-demand generation. A passivity, learned helplessness, lack of resilience. I think the movie Wall-E was pretty spot on. There will always be a few, like David Hogg, who will fight on, but I am nonplussed as to what the future holds. (To be above board, my millennials, elder and younger green kids were the start of this trend. I bought into the "everything should be fair and painless mindset," and while they are doing pretty well now, I still think I could have better prepared them for real life by not wrapping them in cotton wool.)

Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for letting me ramble.