Have you thought about running for office as a Green candidate? Even if you haven’t, consider the following: Americans have never been closer to rebellion against the political establishment. Millions are fed up with the sold-out Democratic and Republican parties, and looking for a new politics with integrity, values, and vision. This isn’t just a feeling in the air; national polls show that a large majority of Americans agree that the establishment parties are failing us, and that a new major party is needed. In short, it's a great year to run for office as a Green.
And the need has never been greater for real solutions for our civilization’s urgent problems, many of which are boiling over into full-blown crises. From the climate meltdown to the dead-end economy to the student loan bubble to mass incarceration to the ever-growing war on terror, the list of how things are getting worse could go on. Most of these problems are symptoms of a larger disease threatening our democracy: the domination of politics by big money. More and more Americans are realizing that the more money goes into politics, the less the government does for them.
But the establishment parties are moving in the wrong direction. The Republicans are retreating into fear-based demagoguery, while the Democratic Party fights tooth and nail against the progressives in its ranks and rakes in cash from Wall Street, war profiteers, and other predators. The Democrats’ turns in power have given us expanding wars, job-killing trade agreements, climate-killing “all of the above” energy policies, and increasing corporate control of our healthcare and schools. They soften the cruelties of corporate capitalism with band-aid reforms, and keep the 1% in charge by telling the 99% that we can’t expect any better. And as progressives trying to work within the Democratic Party are discovering, the game is stacked against them; the party is democratic in name only.
There’s never been a better time for people of integrity to join together and build the new major party our country so desperately needs. The Green Party is uniquely positioned to seize this moment as an opportunity to bring about the transformation we need at every level: in our local, state, and federal governments, our economy, our society, and our relationship with nature. The Greens are the only national party with a consistent stand against corporate money in politics, and a platform that could unite millions in a new populist progressive movement. In today’s political climate, a rising new party that empowers regular people to run for office to look out for the interests of the people - not lobbyists or corporate PACs - has the potential to catch fire.
But political movements don’t build themselves. We need candidates who are willing to stand up and carry the Green banner. Win or lose, every Green campaign plants the seeds of future victory, by bringing Green values into the mainstream, challenging establishment politicians to answer for their failures, and recruiting new members into the movement - including future candidates. At the local level, Greens in Wisconsin have won over 50% of the races they’ve entered. Running more candidates at all levels will not only make a difference in our communities, it will also help build the critical mass we need to win higher office and turn our values of peace, justice, democracy and ecology into reality. It will also strengthen the growing movement to fix our broken electoral system with reforms like ranked-choice voting, proportional representation, and publicly financed elections.
If you’re willing to consider running for office to build the movement for people, planet, and peace, the Wisconsin Greens want to talk with you! Let us know you're considering a run for office and we’ll get in touch about the next steps. Signature gathering to get on the ballot begins April 15th. Building a bridge to the better world we know is possible begins whenever you’re ready!
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