Frankly, the Green Party Platform is more inspiring than the Democratic Party platform. http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/2004platform.pdf but I remain a Democrat, as I have been since 1970, because within our current election system, the Democratic Party remains our best hope for progressive reform. I will seek the Democratic nomination on August 31st because I have to try to work from within the party to slow it's drift to the right.
The Board of Elections requires that I collect 117 signatures of registered voters of any stripe on a petition, in order to prove that I am a viable candidate worthy of appearing on the ballot on November 3rd. on the Green Party line. I started that process this weekend. It went well. I took my petition by Chris Thomas's house. (Chris is the Trumansburg Village Board member that is my only declared opposition for the Democratic nomination) I thought if he was extremely magnanimous, he might sign as an indication that he believes in basic democratic principles, and the rights of the voters to have a choice in November even if he wins the Democratic nomination at the caucus August 31st. He wasn't quite that magnanimous, but he was quite pleasant considering some of the rather harsh things I have written and said about him. He thinks I have said things about him that are untrue, and I disagree, and we are both entitled to our opinions. I have written that he is really still a Libertarian, despite having switched his registration at the BOE. He says he is a moderate Democrat. But regardless of labels, and official BOE registrations, we are both citizens, and we are both doing what we feel is right. That said, there is a big difference between what I feel is right and what Chris feels is right, and I hope that the average voter is more closely aligned with my beliefs, and acts upon that knowledge.
As I have written in previous posts, I am very concerned about the threat from the gas drilling corporations that want to use hydrofracking in our fair town. Since I was going door to door with my petition, I thought I would do a little poll to see what people thought about this issue. Here's my poll question,
Gas drilling corporations are leasing a large percentage of land within Tompkins County in hopes of profiting from the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus shale deposits below us. They intend to use a technology which threatens environmental damage. Would you say,
A.) The environmental risks are offset by our need for gas, and the rights of landowners to profit from gas leasing.
or
B.) The environmental risks are unacceptable, and your Town officials should try to stop these corporations from operating within Ulysses
or
C.) You have no opinion.
The results were overwhelmingly against the corporations, and in favor of our Town officials trying to stop them. I stopped polling to save time, and because the results were so clear.
A.) 1
B.) 15
C.) 2
