20 Reasons To Vote Green In 2022 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15233828
By Howie Hawkins and Gloria Mattera

The Democrats rule New York as a one-party state with veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. But once again this year they failed to use their power to enact popular progressive reforms affecting health care, climate, housing, criminal justice, and abortion rights.

The Democrats’ disposal of the following 20 bills are 20 reasons to vote for the Green Party gubernatorial ticket of Howie Hawkins and Gloria Mattera on November 8.

1. The New York Health Act would have created a state-level Medicare-for-All program for all New York residents. Versions of it have passed the Assembly since the early 1990s. But the bill has not got out of committee in either chamber since the Democrats regained control of the state Senate in 2018.

More climate legislation is needed to implement to clean energy and environmental justice goals of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). While the Green Party regards these goals in CLCPA as too weak, the Greens did support the climate bills pushed by the Climate Can’t Wait coalition to support the CLCPA’s clean energy and environmental justice goals. But these climate bills were not adopted by the legislature:

2. The Build Public Renewables Act would have enabled the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build affordable renewable energy and to retrofit public buildings with energy efficiency and electric heat pumps.

3. The All Electric Buildings Act would have ended fossil-fueled heating and cooling systems in new residential or commercial buildings for buildings up six floors by 2024 and all buildings by 2027

4. The CLCPA Implementation and Funding Act would have provided $15 billion in the 2022 budget to help fund the clean energy transition.

5. The Clean Futures Act would have banned new fossil-fueled electric power generation.

6. The Climate and Community Investment Act would have enacted a progressive carbon tax with rebates to help fund the clean energy transition.

7. The Fossil Fuel Subsidy Elimination Act would have cut over $330 million in New York tax exemptions to the fossil fuel industry.

8. The Green New Deal for New York Act would have taxed the rich for over $10 billion a year to help fund the clean energy transition

9. The Renewable Capitol Act would have required that the State Capitol and Empire State Plaza be powered by renewable energy.

10. The Teachers’ Fossil Fuel Divestment Act would have required the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System to divest from fossil fuel holdings.

11. The Energy Efficiency, Equity and Jobs Act would have required that Public Service Commission programs provide job training funds and set hiring targets for disadvantaged communities.

12. The Cryptocurrency Mining Act did pass. It provides for a two-year moratorium on fossil-fueled cryptocurrency mining. But it grandfathers in the on-site fracked gas powered electricity at Greenidge Generation’s Bitcoin mining plant in Dresden on Seneca Lake. Whether Governor Kathy Hochul will sign it into law is far from certain. The original bill called for a three-year moratorium. The Green Party supports a ban. Cryptocurrency mining is a waste of energy. Even when cryptocurrency is mined with renewable electricity, that is clean electricity that is needed immediately to decarbonize buildings, transportation, and manufacturing.

The affordable housing crisis in New York has become acute since the Covid eviction moratorium expired in January. In New York City, rents rose 33 percent in 2021, almost double the national rate and the highest increase among the 100 largest U.S. cities. Evictions are accelerating.

13. The Prohibition of Eviction Without Good Cause Act would have required landlords to have “good cause” to evict tenants and prevented landlords from kicking out tenants just to drastically raise rents. It also would have capped rent increases at 3%, or 1.5 times the annual percent change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is higher.

Despite the Black Lives Matter demonstrations after the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 that were the largest protest movement in US history, their demands for an end to police and criminal justice system abuses have stalled in New York. These five police and criminal justice reform bills failed:

14. The Clean Slate Act would have cleared a person's criminal record after completion of their sentence in order to remove barriers to employment, housing, and education for 2.3 million New Yorkers.

15. The Fair and Timely Parole Act would have required the state Parole Board to evaluate inmates for parole based on current merit and behavior.

16. The Elder Parole Act would have required that inmates over 55 years old who served 15 or more years be considered for parole.

17. The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act would have enabled people wrongfully convicted to clear their names and their records

18. End Qualified Immunity Act would have ended the US Supreme Court invented doctrine that shields government officials from liability in civil cases and in particular police and correctional officers from culpability for civil rights violations.

While the state legislature did not see fit to divest the teacher’s pension fund from fossil fuel companies, it did see fit amid a flood of campaign cash from the financial industry to funnel public employee pension funds into high-risk Wall Street “alternative investment” schemes.

19. The High-Risk Public Employee Pensions Investment Act (our name for A9668A/S8532) will raise from 25% to 35% the portion of state public employee pension funds that can be invested in high-risk “alternative investments" such as hedge funds, private equity, and real estate, sending as much as $54 billion more in retiree savings to risky Wall Street investment stratagems.

In the wake of the leaked US Supreme Court draft decision to overturn abortion rights, New York Democrats proclaimed they would enshrine abortion rights as well as gender equality in the New York state constitution. Then they failed to pass the proposed Equality Amendment to do so.

20. The Equality Amendment would have started the process of enacting a state constitutional amendment to prohibit discrimination based on a person’s race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, and sex — including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, access to reproductive care including abortion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
#15234401
@DarinRobbins,

The one necessary and sufficient reason NOT to vote Green is =>

It will let a few Repuds win their elections at all levels of Gov., who would have lost if many of the Green voters had voted Dem instead.
. . . It may even let the Repuds take control or maintain control of the House or Senate, or some state legislatures, or at more local levels too. Or, let Repuds win some some statewide elections for officials (especially Sec. of State and Gov.), and in 2024, US President.

Please note, that I have been suggesting for over 18 months that Progressives go into the streets to show themselves and everyone just how many of us there really are, and then for them (but only if we are numerous enough), to take over the Green Party. However, that didn't happen. So now, I'm certain that it is too late for my plan to work. So, a Green vote will be a wasted vote in the next 2 critical elections.

IMHO, the next 2 elections are too important in the fight to save democracy and put the Repud Party in a cage for now (if not end it forever, like the Whig Party was), too important for any protest votes or votes to punish the Dems for failing to overcome Manchin's or Sinema's blocking of what the Dems other than them wanted to do. This time we need to vote for more Dems to see if this works better than punishing them for failure when they lacked the necessary votes to get much done.
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#15234444
The problem with this reasoning is that I have heard it for more than 20 years. Each election we are told that this year is too important to vote Green, and maybe Greens can be supported in the future. But the future where people are free to vote for what they want never comes. It's a deliberate strategy by the Democrat leadership to maintain a voter base no matter what they do. They are under no pressure to change. The Green Party, besides having a completely different and distinct platform and political ideology as a declared ecosocialist party, can at the very least apply outside pressure to the Democrats to move to the left. In New York, the deadline to change voter registration in order to vote in the primary and general election are way before the primary season. In other words, people would have to register Democrat without knowing what their options are in the Democrat primary election. That is another capturing strategy by the party. If you're going to vote for the Democrats no matter what, eventually you end being the one to throw your vote away.
#15234448
Wow. Just WTF! This thread is for the tone deaf who just don't get it.

Hint: look around. You are not on the same sheet of music as the rest of the country.

Suggest the both of you step back and start looking and listening outside of this ridiculous echo chamber.
#15234475
BlutoSays wrote:Wow. Just WTF! This thread is for the tone deaf who just don't get it.

Hint: look around. You are not on the same sheet of music as the rest of the country.

Suggest the both of you step back and start looking and listening outside of this ridiculous echo chamber.


So says the man who is so deep into his own echo chamber that he can't think for himself and mostly posts memes.

Bluto, have you seen any of the Jan. 6th hearings?
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#15234477
These aren't "reasons to vote Green"; these are just parts of their platform. What is the value in voting Green at the national level if Greens are unelectable and the people they run aren't even serious candidates?
#15234553
Steve_American wrote:So says the man who is so deep into his own echo chamber that he can't think for himself and mostly posts memes.

Bluto, have you seen any of the Jan. 6th hearings?
.



Hahhahahaaaaaa! Faaaak NO. I'm not watching any of that Soviet show-trial horseshit. :lol:

Everyone knows when Pelosi blocked certain republicans from serving on the committee, because they would ask inconvenient questions, that this was a show trial of, by and for the Democraptic National Committee.
#15234796
VOTE RED OR BLUE, NO MATTER WHO ! :lol:



OMG the Jan 6 hearings ? Why would anyone with two braincells to rub against actually watch that b.s. ? The whole point of the Jan 6 hearings is that the democrats dont fail so miserably in November, and that they maybe get an excuse to get rid of Trump.

If you look into Jan 6 independently, its a total trainwreck. They had hardly anyone there, just a few policemen, with NO BACKUP either. And theres literally clips of how they "stormed" the capitol. The policemen ... open the way for them ! They invited them ! Come in here !

Whow. Some "storming".

Any idea how many soldiers are at the capitol when theres a black lifes matter demonstration ? They know how to defend the capitol when they actually want it defended.
#15234824
The 20 bills listed in the original post are supported by the Green Party, but they do not originate from our platform. I want to make it clear that these are bills in the New York state legislature that have been lingering for years without a vote even though the Democrats have supermajorities and could easily pass all of them without any trouble if they wanted to. The point is that the Democrats don't want to, and yet at the same time they demand unwavering loyalty from progressive voters. That is why a Green campaign for governor is necessary this year.
#15234870
DarinRobbins wrote:The 20 bills listed in the original post are supported by the Green Party, but they do not originate from our platform. I want to make it clear that these are bills in the New York state legislature that have been lingering for years without a vote even though the Democrats have supermajorities and could easily pass all of them without any trouble if they wanted to. The point is that the Democrats don't want to, and yet at the same time they demand unwavering loyalty from progressive voters. That is why a Green campaign for governor is necessary this year.


I told you what needed to be done to make the Green Party have a chance.

Chris Hedges told me and I told you. You have to get 1.5 million people out in the streets showing that they will vote Green. Then months later get 20 M into the streets.

The Green Party didn't listen. Anyway they didn't do it.

Now it is too late. You don't have time to get 20 M into the streets.

Therefore, not enough will vote Green to win more than 50 state of national races. Maybe more than 50 in local races nationwide. You (Greens) are a joke.

The IPCC gave humanity 8 more years to stop burning carbon, aka oil and gas. We can't wait while the Greens get their act together.

Many people didn't like the ending of "Don't Look Up". It is looking more and more prophetic. We are doomed and the rich will just live a little longer. We need a Hail Mary play to save us from ourselves.
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#15235373
I agree that it would have been helpful to mobilize large amounts of people to pledge to vote Green, but that mobilization would not have happened in a political vacuum. These people would have been deluged by constant talking points that the Greens are "Russian agents", "secret Republicans", and "spoilers". The spoiler accusation has been going on for over 20 years. In other words, there has been a constant agenda to keep progressives and leftists in the Democrat Party in order to unquestioningly vote for any Democrat that is running. I will note that there has been a lot of enthusiasm for the Democratic Socialists Of America, and to a lesser degree the Movement For A People's Party. Even though both organizations are more closely aligned with our platform and ideas, the DSA has committed itself to always vote Democrat. I personally would love to see some sort of coalition between the Greens, DSA, and the People's Party. So I don't think that a lack of mass mobilization that you suggested is an inevitable failure. It does require reaching out to people outside the party who share our values. That is why I am doing this outreach on Facebook, Reddit, and these political forums.
#15235378
The East Coast political establishment used to run the Republican party. Now, with their allies, they run the Democrat party.

For all the inchoate mumblings of the wacko Right, the East Coast establishment is largely Center/Right. They say they are Progressive, but Darin's OP demonstrated they are not, not even close.

The underlying problem is that the country is literally structured as a 2 party system. Unless one of the 2 parties collapses (and it's been a while since that happened) no outside group has a chance.
#15235811
DarinRobbins wrote:20 reasons to vote for the Green Party


2. The Build Public Renewables Act
3. The All Electric Buildings Act
4. The CLCPA Implementation and Funding Act
5. The Clean Futures Act would have banned new fossil-fueled electric power generation.
6. The Climate and Community Investment Act
7. The Fossil Fuel Subsidy Elimination Act

These all seem like micro-managing a problem rather than attacking it from all angles. Rather than solutions, all I see are tinkering that doesn't get to the central problem of the way our economy works (by externalizing pollution and resource depletion).

8. The Green New Deal for New York Act would have taxed the rich for over $10 billion a year to help fund the clean energy transition

I like this campaign pledge, but 10 billion seems like a small amount for the scale of the problem.

1. The New York Health Act
9. The Renewable Capitol Act
10. The Teachers’ Fossil Fuel Divestment Act
11. The Energy Efficiency, Equity and Jobs Act
12. The Cryptocurrency Mining
13. The Prohibition of Eviction Without Good Cause Act
14. The Clean Slate Act
15. The Fair and Timely Parole Act
16. The Elder Parole Act
17. The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act
18. End Qualified Immunity Act
19. The High-Risk Public Employee Pensions Investment Act
20. The Equality Amendment


These have nothing to do with the environment, and dabbling in non-environmental causes really brought down the Green Party of Canada in the latest election. I don't think it's a winning strategy. It dilutes the green movement by branding it as "just one of many feel-good leftist causes."
#15236090
These are all bills that are currently in the New York state legislature, and the Green Party supports them as important steps, but the state party platform is much more comprehensive. As a declared ecosocialist party, the Green Party understands the connections between political, economic, and environmental policy and that a more just and egalitarian society is also a more sustainable society. We are not a one-issue party. An excerpt from our platform below summarizes it well.

"Introduction: The Green Party seeks to build an alternative economic system based on ecology and decentralization of power. This would require a wholesale restructuring of political control through varied decentralized bodies such as workers' councils, workplace committees, community and neighborhood assemblies, etc. that are empowered to democratically plan political and economic life on an ecosocialist basis. We affirm that this is our ultimate goal and strive to build ecosocialist political and economic institutions as part of a broader movement for change. This includes support for prefiguration, meaning the creation of working models of the type of society that we would like to live in. So, for example, working to create community owned and democratically managed resources such as car sharing or bike sharing programs, community land trusts, libraries of things, timebanks, community solar arrays, vertical farms, fab labs, worker cooperatives, community development credit unions, and local currencies, as described elsewhere in this platform."
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