The Green Party

If I had to align myself with a political party besides the two main ones in the United States, I would have to say I'd go with the Green Party. While they've certainly struggled to make it onto the main stage of US politics, the case could definitely be made that they've done a lot to bring environmental issues into the spotlight and in my opinion, that makes them an incredibly relevant and important political institution. The Green party is often brought up with the other most popular third party; the Libertarian Party, and while holding some similar views to them on some issues, the Green party is distinct in that most of their members run solely on environmental issues. I know I've said that I consider myself an environmentalist a million times on this blog, but even I have to admit that I envy the zeal and gusto displayed by members of the Green party, particularly that of Doctor Jill Stein. While I sincerely doubt that she'll ever actually be president, I think that she truly would do a lot of good for this planet if she were able to find herself in a prominent position of power. Her heart truly is in the right place, and I believe her love of this planet is rivalled by pretty much no one. I really wish more politicians would take environmentalism as seriously as she does, especially politicians in powerful countries such as the United States that have the means to actually make substantial environmental change for the better or worse. Very few people would flat out say that they simply don't care about the environment. This planet is home to us all, so the desire to keep it healthy and thriving is in all of our best interest, but few people do as much for this planet as the Green party. Unfortunately despite all the good that the Green party does, there are reasons that they aren't as prominent in the mainstream as many wish they would be. One big one is that many of them, while fantastic activists, are political neophytes. They know a lot about the environment and how to save it, but they aren't very savvy when it comes to the game of politics. Another reason is that, unfortunately, many extremists tend to align with them. I wrote about eco terrorism a little while ago, and before, during, and after that entry, I did a little research and found out that the vast majority of environmentalist extremists align with the Green party because they believe that all of the other parties don't take environmental issues seriously enough. It never looks good on any political movement to have extremists backing it and the Green Party isn't an exception. That aside, it should be said again that even though they don't hold much real power, the Green Party plays a crucial role in keeping environmental issues at the forefront of the political stage and I will always admire them for that.