1. Phil Sawyer entered (in an earlier post):

   Gene Says:
   December 19th, 2008 at 10:21 am
   There’s no torch to be passed. Run if you want to run. You ought to thank Ralph and others for making that possible in face of the obstacles so thoroughly documented on this site.

   Phil Sawyer adds:

   What is needed is not the passing of the torch from one independent presidential candidate to another independent presidential candidate. What is necessary is the birth of a new, leftist, party of the people – or, at least, a new coalition that represents most (if not all) of the leftist parties that currently exist. I have been saying and writing that since 1974.

   Phil Sawyer, California Elector for:

   Eugene McCarthy for President in 1976;
   Eugene McCarthy for President in 1988;
   Ralph Nader for President in 2008.

   Michal Mudd Says:

   December 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
   I’m proud of our party [Green Party of the United States] in both elections and hardly think we are “dead.”

   Forming a new political party, as Phil Sawyer wishes, is harder than you think in this day and age, and any “new, leftist, party of the people” will face the same hardships that the Green Party has faced and continues to face. We need to continue to push for, in the court of public opinion as well as in the statehouses of America, electoral laws that are truly fair and democratic (that’s little d).

   I predict the love-fest between American progressives, including those that deserted the Green Party’s candidates, and the Obama Administration will be short-lived, as the unfortunate curve to the center materialized [sic], and they’ll soon come to their senses that true “change” requires more than just a Democrat in the Oval Office.

   Phil Sawyer responds:

   Well, at the present time I am not involved in any efforts to start a new political party. I have been involved in such efforts over the decades and I know that what Michal says is true: it is very difficult. We did pretty darn well with the Reform Party of the United States, though.

   Regarding the Green Party of the United States, I am actually a card-carrying member (and frequent donor, when possible), Michal. However, my political activism these days is with the Communist Party USA; and the Peace and Freedom Party of California (member of the State and Sacramento County Central Committees). You could correctly call me a watermelon green (green on the outside and red – very red – on the inside).

   There has been a lot of talk, it seems, among many people in the Green Party of the US and the Peace and Freedom Party of California about a merger between PFP-CA and the watermelon greens. Just talk, though, and no action of any sort that I am aware of.

   If someone else wants to take the leadership on starting a new party or coalition, I would be interested in following. I have been a leader down that path so many times in the past that I am not now interested in doing it myself. That all brings everything back to “square one.” Where is the strong, mass, Party of the People when we really need it the most? We are living in revolutionary times but there is no mass Party of the People to organize and lead the Revolution. So, we are left with the Democratic Party (the Party that Michal does not seem to think will bring “true ‘change’”) as a main center of organization. Until we (”progressive” independents) have a mass Party of our own, we need to accept the fact that most of the action is going to be happening within the Democratic Party. As V.I. Lenin wrote: “If you want to … win the sympathy and support of the ‘masses,’ you … must absolutely work wherever the masses are to be found.”

2. For a democracy we sure have a lot of problems, like ballot access for third parties, counting votes, charging innocent candidates fees for something that weren’t their fault, harsh petitioner restrictions in some states, etc.

   I never voted for Ralph; but, I appreciate every time he runs and fights to make things better.

3. Thanks for your good wishes, Roger. If we had a mass, revolutionary, People’s Party; we would be in a better position to demand changes that would make elections more fair – and society, as a whole, more egalitarian. It is unfortunate that so few people are able to understand that.

4. Ah, a candidate to rival Donald Lake for latching onto a thread, no matter what the topic, and expounding on his own completely different agenda.(Sawyer may be disqualified, however, in this contest because his posting has at least some REMOTE connection to the subject of the story, though not the topic of the story).

   As far as V.I. Lenin’s quote: “If you want to … win the sympathy and support of the ‘masses,’ you … must absolutely work wherever the masses are to be found.” I have news for you. With all due respect to this site which I wholeheartedly support, the “masses” will not be found on any Internet blog site.

5. Gary: The reason that I have re-posted this message so many times is because I think that it is worthy of discussion (and I am waitng for some more people to actually read it). My reference to “the masses,” is actually to that huge number of people who made it possible for President-elect Barack Obama to win the Democratic Party nomination and then the general eletion – and, because of that, the Democratic Party is where most of the action is going to be in the next four years, at least. The Republican Party will be a minor-sized Party by the year 2012 (which will make more company for the bourgeois conservative Constitution Party and Libertarian Party). The American Independent Party of California should be able to escape this fate by making sure that its secession from the Constition Party is legally approved – and then trying to reach out to more “progressive” populists voters such as those who often vote for candidates of the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party in the Golden State.

6. The Inquirer has been good to Nader on the editorial page, compared to other newspapers.

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