The Peace and Freedom Party has been on the ballot in California for all elections 1968 through 2008, except that it was off in 2000 and 2002. It has always run candidates for the legislature when it has been on the ballot.
In 2008, its Assembly candidates polled 8.29% in the races in which it ran candidates. This is easily the best percentage for Assembly in the party’s history. The previous high for Assembly for PFP had been in 1978, when the party polled 5.22%. Although it is true that one of the PFP candidates in 2008 was in a race with no Republican (thus giving her percentage a boost), even if that race is excluded, PFP’s 2008 showing would still be its best ever for Assembly.
Also in 2008, PFP had its second best showing for State Senate, after 1990. And in 2008 it had its best showing for its US House candidates since 1992. Finally, in 2008 it had its best ever presidential showing, .80% for Ralph Nader. The previous best for PFP for president had been Dr. Benjamin Spock in 1972 with .66%.
I am Mary Morgan, Dr. Spock’s widow. I remember all of the campaigning that we did for the Peace and Freedom Party when Ben ran for president. It was an amazing time. I think that Ben would be proud of Obama. Send the message to his Grandmother that Dr. Spock is proud of how he turned out!!
Obama is just the opening of the door. It is up to each of use to have the courage to walk threw it. We can’t just sit back and say: “Let’s see what Obama will do.” We all are being called to reach deep within for a strength which has not been called for before. We are all ONE. We are all in this together. There is no “other”. No separation from “them”. That’s why he spoke so eloquently about Republicans. We are all on this ride together.
Supporting Obama calls for this kind or recognition.
He goes to office with Dr. Spock’s Blessings and Support, I am sure,
Mary Morgan
I do wish the PFP would more strongly pursue building a national multi-tendency democratic feminist ecosocialist party, as was proposed last year.
Hi Mary
Good to hear from you. But the air needs to be cleared on some matters. The people owe Peace and Freedom’s 2008 Presidential Candidate a debt they will never be able to repay. Ralph Nader over the last several campaigns has fought in the courts to overturn laws that deny Third Party Candidates access to the ballot. Richard has outlined this in detail on this page. With out Ralph’s actions Independent Political Parties would be on the endangered species list.
Second we need to address the claim that Barack Obama is a benign entity, a clean slate that we can write on. Well the record on one very important issues contradicts that idea. I am referring to Single Payer Health Care. Never have I seen a chasm as wide or as deep between an elected official and the electorate as that which exist between Barack Obama and those that have elected him. Mister Obama advances a plan that delivers the poor and the uninsured into the clutches of the raptious health insurance industry. Through his surrogates he discredits the hard work of activists many of whom have worked tirelessly in near total obscurity for 15 years to set up a Single Payer System. And before he was even elected laid down precise plans to employ sleight-of-hand in order to trick the unwitting in to believing his plan offered something of substance to the people of this country. All of this in service to the health insurance industry in their quest for profits. The same Health Insurance that denied 17 year old Nataline Sarkisyan a liver transplant that would have saved her life.
Is this what Ben supports ?
Because that is what Barrack Obama supports !
Ralph Nader has supported Single Payer Health Care in every campaign he has undertaken. And that goes back to 1996.
The California Nurses Associations also supports Single Payer. SEIU which has become one of the most corrupt Labor Unions in the nation today does not support Single Payer. As a matter of fact SEIU has signed on and contributed half a million dollars to HCAN. (Healthcare for Americans Now) HCAN is a rump organization set up to support Obama’s Healthcare Program with the express purpose of derailing Single Payer. To show you what lengths Obama will go CNA Executive Director Roseanne DeMoro was speaking at a Labor Notes Convention last spring when the convention dinner was set up by masked thugs from SEIU in order to break it up which they successfully did. Does Ben support that type of action ?
America needs more than blind loyalty to a political party or a leader. It needs a firm commitment to Social Justice in all it’s forms what ever they may be.
Deran Says:
January 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I do wish the PFP would more strongly pursue building a national multi-tendency democratic feminist ecosocialist party, as was proposed last year.
Phil Sawyer responds:
The best thing about the Peace and Freedom Party of California’s plan to go national (in the form that is being discussed) is that, despite all of the talk over the many years, it still has not happened. It is not a good idea at all to take a Party that is as dysfunctional as PFP-CA and import it to other states; that would just spread the infection. Of course, there might be a way to do it and avoid that sort of problem: We could utilize some kind of “poison pill” mechanism that would keep other parties and organizations from taking over the new state PFP parties. Otherwise, please forget about the whole idea. It would be a much better idea for PFP-CA to merge with a national Party that is already in existence – something that I have been advocating for decades.
In addition, for those of you who have not been down that road before (starting a new Party) – as I have a few times over the past few decades – I think that some of you may not realize just how difficult such a task is. With that being said, though, I do admit that we did pretty darn well with the Reform Party of the United States. The talk about a merger of PFP-CA with the watermelon greens (green on the outside and red on the inside) is rather fascinating, I also admit. Still, the above mentioned caveats do apply.
Sincerely,
Phil
Philippe L. Sawyer, Member:
Coalition for Free and Open Elections
Communist Party USA
Green Party of the United States
Peace and Freedom Party of California
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
United Public Employees, Local #1
Veterans For Peace
PS: Thank you for your message, Ms. Mary Morgan. The General Election of 1972 posed a difficult decision for me. Although I had a great deal of sympathy for the Peace and Freedom Party/Peoples Party presidential candidate, Dr. Benjamin Spock, I ended up voting for (and doing much volunteer work for) the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, Senator George S. McGovern. (He should have won!) At the time, I was a member of the Democratic Party, by the way. That was the last time that I had voted for a “major party” candidate for president in a General Election in November until 2004, when I voted for the Kerry-Edwards ticket (my first choice was the Nader-Camejo ticket but we were unable to qualify that slate for the ballot in California). In 2008, I was a Ralph Nader delegate to the Peace and Freedom Party’s State Nominating Convention in August; and a California Elector for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonazlez in the General Election in November.
Also a California Elector for:
Independents Eugene J. McCarthy and Sheila Coyne-Carnac, prresident and vice president, 1976;
Independents Eugene J. McCarthy and Maureen Smith, president and vice president, 1988.
In the post above, regarding the 1972 elections, I should have stated that it was for the General Election that I voted and worked for Senator George S. McGovern. During the Primary Election season, I voted and worked for (former) Senator Eugene J. McCarthy for president.