Since it is Perceived by Ignorant Voters as One Issue, the Green Party is a Political Rat Hole

Cenk Uygur fails to mention that the Progressives have lost everything for 30 years and there literally is nothing left to lose. The economy already collapsed, just as you would expect after no non-right wing management of it at all for 30 years, so it is too late to get much benefit from "financial reform" at least in our lifetimes. Maybe it would benefit the next generation.

As for trying to get this or that right wing operator including Obama to change his or her ways, that is not reasonable as most here realize.

Rather, if they want to move toward finally winning a game after losing about the last 50 political games in a row, progressives have to unify their thousands of Internet sites, hundreds of organizations and "movements," and dozens of unelectable parties into an overall umbrella organization. Progressives love little niches and don't fully appreciate the value of unity. This would have to change were they to really want to actually win a game in the future.

On a related note, I finally got around to checking out the Cohn article that was referenced in yesterday's Peter Dreier article: "Pass the Health Bill, Then Improve It". Dreier and Cohn claim that the health insurance deform will improve the financial lives of lower income families. It made my day to shoot huge holes in that one, which I did in brief comments at the Dreier article.

GUEST COMMENT

The Left needs a political party ...

Register Green Party ... without a political arm alll those liberal and progressive blogs and websites are just noise. Then there are all the Environmental, Human Rights,
Anti War, Civil Rights, Labor and Clean Government groups that need to coalesce around a political party.

UNITY PROGRESS COMMENT
Change the name of the Green party because the name right now shouts one issue and there is no way a party perceived by the ignorant voters as a one issue party can ever succeed in the US.

GUEST COMMENT
Do you have any idea what's involved in changing the name of a political party? We did it here in Oregon about 10 years ago, from Pacific to Pacific Green, and lost a dangerous number of registrations when we did it. EVERY member had to change their registration, and new members had to look for the new name. I think there are still people registered "Pacific Party."

Anyway, the name might be our biggest advantage. Saving the environment - "Going Green" - is the best supported single progressive issue. People seem to grasp that it's a question of survival. Only health-care, also a survival issue, draws such universal support and passion - and we're on the popular side on that one, too.

UNITY PROGRESS COMMENT
The best supported progressive issue is economic survival, especially now but always. (It would be nice to not have to live under the bridge and/or file bankruptcy every few years, wouldn't it?)

You should have left your party named the way it was if you really want to win elections and not just a few movement votes.

Again, there is no way any party which has a name which shouts one issue will ever win much of anything in the US. There are like two or three countries where the Green party has ever actually won anything important, with Germany being by far the most important one. Germans very often don't judge political books by their covers, but Americans and people in most other countries mostly do. It's just a quirk of Germans that allows the Green party to win some things in Germany.

The above exchange was in response to this article.