Jackass Penguins

The issue of the Greens’ potential base is not one to be ignored. While tens of millions embrace the values of the Green Party, in 2012 only 469,501 citizens voted for Stein for president. This was only 0.36% of the popular vote, less than half of one percent. While she is today doing better than this in the polls, as election day approaches, if the election is close, many of those who today say they will support her are likely to fall away and return to the Democratic fold. And if this isn’t the case, and the GOP again wins the election by margins less than the Green vote in key states, we will only see more anger directed at the Greens who’ll be widely viewed as spoilers.

Another aspect of developing a strategic approach would be for the Greens to engage the Democrats. As the Green Party grows stronger, they can negotiate with the Dems and win some key concessions in exchange for standing down in critical races. First among these should be getting the Dems to endorse and support electoral reform that would, at a minimum, include support for Instant Runoff Voting. Besides this, in exchange for not running candidates in districts the Dems have prioritized, the Greens could potentially get the Dems to stand down in others where the Greens have a real chance of winning. In some states cross-endorsement or fusion voting is allowed and others might be convinced to adopt it, if the Democrats would embrace it.

All this is in the future, of course, as today the Greens have next to nothing to bargain with. But with a strategic vision and leadership, it could potentially be done.

Or the alternative, of course, is to do what Sen. Sanders has done this year, run insurgent campaigns within the Democratic Party.

Both are potentially productive strategies, and they are not mutually exclusive. Indeed a left-leaning contingent within the Democratic Party could choose to ally itself with the Greens. But this sort of inside-outside strategy is certainly not possible if the Greens continue to focus on running presidential candidates who have zero chance of winning, and are engaging in a high stakes gamble that could not only lead to a GOP victory, a huge loss for the country, but also to the loss of whatever support the Greens may have rebuilt in the 16 years since the Nader debacle.