OntheWilderSide

“WWGLD? What Would a Green Legislator Do? If we had a Green bloc in the Tennessee legislature, what positions would they take? How would they deal with a legislative agenda that would, at least in the early stages of our presence, be dominated by Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats?

And, although I think one of the first priorities of a Green caucus in the state legislature would be the introduction of instant runoff voting, to overcome the “spoiler effect” of a third party splitting the vote and allowing someone to win without a majority, or the need for an expensive second round of voting, it’s at least theoretically possible to elect a Green majority in the Tennessee legislature without any “three’s a crowd” elections–because 57 of the 99 seats in the House were not contested by one or the other major party, not to mention fully half the Senate seats. Yes, voters went to the ballot box and found they had not three, not two, but one choice, which is no choice at all. When I was a kid, I was told that the wonderful difference between America and Godless Communism was that here, we have a choice at the ballot box.. . .”

The big news for the Green Party of Tennessee this month is that the court finally ruled on our ballot access suit–which we filed over two years ago–the bad news is, they managed to drag their heels until it was too late for the ruling to apply to the upcoming election.  The other potentially bad news is that the court instructed the Tennessee legislature to change the state's laws to correct the problem.  That could drag it out another two yea … Read More

via DEEP GREEN PERSPECTIVE

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