The weather reports for Sunday are terrible. We don't want
public-spirited people to get into car accidents over a nominating
convention, so we have postponed the convention from December 16 to
Saturday, January 5 at 10 a.m., with a snowcheck date of Sunday,
January 6, 2 p.m.
I will be sending out several analyses of the issues the Green Party
nominating convention will face on January 5. I will post any message
anyone wants me to post on the issues. Please make liberal use of the
ctimpeach@yahoogroups.
So far I have not found anyone who is willing to accept a 4th district
Green nomination for the congressional race. We will accept
nominations from the floor.
The primary issue of the convention will probably be whether or not
the Greens should run any candidate for Congress in the 4th district.
A number of arguments should be made on both sides of this issue so
that everyone will be clear about the possible consequences of their
votes.
I believe the Greens should run a candidate on an impeachment
platform. I think this is important because impeachment is a
non-partisan issue both the Democrats and Republicans avoid, I
believe, because they do not want to admit the extent of the
Constitutional crisis we face, nor what their actual roles in it are.
Constitutional issues are intrinsically the most important issues a
government CAN face, so they should be confronted squarely.
In World War II we filled the power vacuum left by the inevitable
decline of the French and British empires. Every major US politician
for the 60 years before Bush has denied the extent of US empire and
the means we use to rule it. Empire is essentially a system of slavery
at a distance that cannot be managed without massive secrecy, deceit,
and violence. Because Republic requires a modicum of honesty,
openness, and tolerance, no Republic can dominate an empire without
being corrupted by it. The rapidly growing fascism of the Bush
Administration, its pervasive corruption and fraud, is not simply an
aberration; but the direct and inevitable result of ruling an empire.
Sooner or later the demands and opportunities of imperial power had to
lead to a president who would dismantle the legal apparatus of the
contitutional republic--and a congress who would hand him the
power--in order to streamline the domination of other countries and
dissent at home.
Without a national agreement that Bush and Cheney deserve impeachment,
there is no way to recreate the rule of law and to obligate future
presidents and congresses to respect the Constitution.
So I believe the question before the Fairfield Greens is whether to
demand impeachment by running a candidate.
I think it should be clear by now that there is no other way to demand
impeachment. Connecticut Democrats made it clear by the vote the
Democratic State Central Committee that they would not buck the
national party line despite the fact that they had no clear account of
the reasoning behind it. The Democrats will not rethink their position
unless they know they can lose votes.
The Democrats will, of course, try to persuade us that it is our
obligation to elect Democrats even though they think they have no
obligation to uphold the Constitution. They will insist that partisan
issues are more important the Constitutional issues, that getting more
Democrats into office is the only proactical solution to all genuine
political problems we face.
As I assume you know, I do not believe this. But I hope the issue will
be raised fully and fairly. I invite anyone who wants to argue the
position, to argue it on this listserve, on ctimpeach, on Green
websites, and on the floor of the convention on January 5. I will ask
Jim Himes to address the issue in those fora. I will ask him also if
he minds if I post the emails we have sent each other on the issue. I
will ask him to debate me on it.
So please communicate with me--and through me, everyone I communicate with.
Richard Duffee
