Greens Elect Bush . . . Again!

That's right, no joke the Green Party elected George Bush again in 2004.

Of course it is not true that Ralph Nader, Green Party candidate, helped Bush become president in 2000. Nader got 3 million votes, many of them drawn from Republicans and independents who wouldn’t have even voted, while 6 million registered Democrats voted for George Bush. Nevertheless, “Nader helped elect Bush” has become part of Democratic credo, and may even be included someday in shoddy high school history texts.

So let’s assume for a moment it is true that Nader was the deciding factor in Bush’s victory in 2000. Democrats, even those who have looked most desperately for excuses for Kerry’s sound defeat in 2004, are unaware that Bush’s victory a year ago was also the fault of the Green Party.

No, it wasn’t the 120,000 votes the Greens pulled nationally for David Cobb, the Green who didn’t want people to vote for him. No, the Democrats and Greens themselves, destroyed the Green Party at the polls in November, reducing their vote from the previous election by 96%!

How, then, did John Kerry fail to unseat George Bush, probably the most incompetent-- and now the most unpopular-- president in American history? How did the Democrats, after co-opting the Greens and spending many millions of dollars to keep Nader off the ballot in several states still manage to lose the election? Most Democratic strategists point the longest finger of blame for their failure at the gay marriage issue.

In February 2004, photos of gay and lesbian couples in front of the San Francisco city hall were front page in newspapers across the country. This catalyzed conservative religious folk— many of whom would not have otherwise voted at all, to come out to vote for George Bush. Eleven states also drew voters by adding a “preservation of marriage” amendment to their ballots.

The poster boy for this fiasco was San Francisco Democratic mayor, Gavin Newsom.

But why did Newsom make such a reckless move in an election year, even after being warned against it by openly gay representative Barney Frank, and other high profile Democrats?

In December of 2003, Newsom was elected mayor in a closely contested run-off election against Green city councilor, Matt Gonzalez. Newsom won the run-off by 53 to 47 per cent. This was the best showing ever for Greens in a major city election. The Democrats had been so afraid of the embarrassment of losing to a Green in a major city that they brought in Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and other party big wigs to campaign for Newsom in the final days of the election. They also outspent the Greens ten to one.

Two months later: gay weddings on the steps of city hall. Was this the result of an off the record campaign promise to leaders of San Francisco’s powerful the gay community; the felt need to solidify support in the gay community after a close election; or the euphoria of dodging an electoral bullet? Gavin ain’t talkin’, so we can only guess, but it’s no stretch to conclude that Bush’s victory was the fault of the Green Party . . . again!