It’s not every election year that the marijuana-legalization, vegan-activist, electric-car-driving, term-limits crowd has much to cheer about.
Not that they can all be lumped together. While there may be some meeting of the roach clips among the Green, Libertarian, and Reform parties, they all have their own very different ideologies, which is why they’re sick and tired of being listed on the ballot simply as ”independents.“
Therein lies one of this year’s primary causes for their optimism. Depending on the ultimate fate of a bill in the Legislature, parties whose candidates received at least 5,000 votes in the last presidential election in Tennessee would have their actual affiliation noted on the ballot this year. In the past, they have been lumped under the ”independent“ column. If the bill passes, the Greens, Libertarians, and Reformers would all qualify.
”The people are dissatisfied with politicians and turned off by political shenanigans,“ says state Sen. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Knoxville, whose fair ballot access bill has passed the full Senate. The House has approved a slightly different measure, and the two chambers will have to agree on a single version if it is to become law.
”Instead of continuing to shut citizens out of the process for some perceived political advantage, we are opening up the ballot to legitimate third parties. This should encourage more people to vote and participate in their government. Maybe some politicians are afraid of that. I’m not one of them.“
Liberating the vote
For the second presidential election in a row, Franklin author, investment advisor, and everyman Harry Browne is running for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, peddling the usual message of more individual freedom and less government intrusion in the lives of Americans.
The party’s ideologies would have the government sell off its national parks, its oil rights, and even its foreign properties. The Libertarians would shatter the Democratic ticket’s mantra to ”protect Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment“ by eliminating the health care plans, the federal Education Department, and all environmental regulations.
As Browne puts it, ”You can sum up Libertarianism by saying we favor individual responsibility and freedom from government on all issues at all times. Force is the least efficient way of solving social problems, and government is force. If there’s a problem, [Libertarians] don’t say, ‘How can government solve this problem?’ We say, ‘How did government cause this problem?’ “
Challenging Democratic Congressman Bob Clement this year is another Libertarian, David Carew. He’s a painfully idealistic but likable guy who actually seems to believe he has a chance to beat Clement with less than $5,000 and a little luck drawing the ”young, hip crowd“ to the polls.
He says money is the reason voters are so disheartened by politics, and he won’t apologize for not pledging to raise gobs of it. ”Money drives everything,“ he says. ”It’s not really justice for you and me. It’s so geared toward money.“
Carew takes his candidacy so seriously that he insists on asking and answering what he calls the ”George Bush question“ about his past drug use. (He says he hasn’t smoked pot in years, and when he did, he did it ”infinitely fewer times“ than many of his peers.) He acknowledges that while he’s been involved with the Libertarian Party for eight years, he doesn’t embrace all its radicalism.
”Sometimes it’s too dogmatic for me,“ says Carew, who goes on to discuss ”legalizing prostitution in a sensible way.“
Greening the vote
Tennessee’s newest political party—the Green Party—is fielding an interesting candidate against monied Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Frist this year. Tom Burrell, a Tipton County businessman and citizen activist, isn’t likely to fare any better for his environmental party than other independent candidates on other tickets, but he does have some credibility. He was in Washington, D.C., recently, for example, to make a presentation on behalf of thousands of family farmers to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.
The Green Party is also holding a presidential preference poll through the World Wide Web. (Cast your vote at www.GreenTN.org.) Voters haven’t exactly been flocking to their keyboards to log their opinion about which of the three Green candidates should be nominated for the presidential race, but this is a first effort. Voting continues through May 30.
”I guess it’s been a little disappointing because people just don’t know about the Green Party yet,“ state party chair Gary Wolf says. ”Anyone can vote in this poll, regardless of whether they’re registered to vote and even if they’re not. We Greens are an inclusive bunch. We want to give everyone a chance to participate.“
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is the leading candidate and is already ahead in the Tennessee polling after a closed early-voting period for Green Party activists. Stephen Gaskin, the founder of The Farm, an ”intentional living“ community in Summertown, Tenn., is running third on the ballot behind rock singer and free-speech advocate Jello Biafra, the former leader of the punk-rock band the Dead Kennedys.
Biafra has perhaps the most intriguing Green ideas. He wants to ”abolish the military“ and ”lower the voting age to 5.“
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