Ten years ago, the Green Party’s potential effect on the 2000 presidential election left Democrats nervously biting their fingernails and Republicans gleefully rubbing their hands together. In fact, some still argue that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader is the reason Bush took Florida from Gore, becoming the forty-third president despite losing the popular vote. But these days, another third party—the Tea Party—has become the one to watch come November after its notable victories in the September primaries. Now it’s the Republicans who are casting a suspicious eye toward their potential usurpers.
A USA Today/Gallup poll taken in late August 2010 showed that Americans across the board want a third party to shake up our two-party system—58 percent of them do, to be exact. In terms of political leanings, that’s 61 percent of liberals, 60 percent of moderates, and 54 percent of conservatives polled. Even Democrats and Republicans are dissatisfied with the current system, with 45 and 47 percent of them, respectively, in favor of a major third party. Clearly, the public is fed up with the way things usually work, and as a result, tea-baggers have become a force to be reckoned with. But what does that mean for the Green Party, which has been somewhat eclipsed by this new movement? Is it benefitting from the strong demand for political change as well?
A Rocky Race to the Finish Line
“It’s always an uphill battle,” says Erika MacDonald, spokesperson for the Green Party of California. She’s referring to two problems that the Green Party continues to struggle against: a lack of resources to raise public awareness and constant interference from the major two parties. Because two of the Green Party’s core tenets are to fund itself through non-corporate and non-labor donations, and to rely on volunteers and other grassroots organizations for help, it’s harder for members to spread its messages. Rather than taking money from organizations and industries that could go against the party’s politics, Greens pull from the surrounding community in the hopes that people will support the cause enough to fund it.
Greens in many states also have to devote much time, energy, and money to getting enough signatures to put their candidates on the ballot. Even then, that’s not always enough, according to MacDonald. “In some of these states, you’ll get ballot status, but then if you run a candidate in a presidential election who doesn’t get 5 percent [of the votes], they’ll throw you off,” she explains. Once Green Party candidates get on ballots, the situation is still far from smooth sailing, thanks to Democrats’ filing lawsuits against them in an attempt to take their names back off. MacDonald cites Nader’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004 as examples. “There was a lawsuit thrown at them in every single state,” she shares, “saying there was some fine print in the law they didn’t follow. And in many cases, Democrats were successful.”
