Interviews with Truthout.org: on Principles & Values

Ran as Green Party nominee for MA governor in 2002 & 2010

A: I wanted to help the Green Party find someone who could run and there weren't a lot of campaigns that could ramp up, and having run for state office multiple times...

Q: In Massachusetts?

A: I ran for governor in 2010; I also ran for governor in 2002, and I also ran for secretary of state in 2006. Everyone is upset out there. People are really upset and we have no politics to attach it to.

Q: Electoral politics?

A: Exactly. There is not a political vehicle for this and it was going to be the Greens or nobody because Nader, for a variety of reasons, is not going to run, and if you're not Nader, it takes a political party. Nader is just about the only person who can run a non-corporate campaign without having an expensive electoral organization. It's impressive that the Greens have survived when the Progressive Party and the Socialist Party as electoral organizations have all folded.

Silence is not an effective political strategy

A: After Nader, I think Greens feel so vindicated right now. We've had this experience over the past 8 years where we've been told to silence ourselves, muzzle yourselves, shut up, hold your nose, vote for the "lesser evil." Now people really have the evidence that silence is not an effective political strategy, and what we do if we silence the public interest, is that we silence ourselves and then we do not have a democracy. Witness what just happened with the Defense Authorization bill. We cannot go there and we need to do something. It just doesn't pass the "laugh test" anymore, and silence just is not working, nor is the politics of fear. The politics of fear has brought us everything we are afraid of, including the endless wars, the collapsing economy--all the rest. Two ships are going down--Democrats and Republicans are both going down. Historically, we've said the Republican ship is going faster. I think that's debatable right now.