The Third Party, Neither Trump Nor Clinton
The Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts is the official State affiliate of the Green Party US. The national Green Party has made unofficial overtures to Senator Bernie Sanders to form a left of center third party should he not win the Democratic nomination.
There was some discussion of how the Reds (Green for Republican) and the Blues (Democrats) were breaking up, similarly to what happed to the Whigs before President Lincoln. I do not think this is the election of the third party. It might however be soon.
The Green Rainbows of Massachusetts held their annual convention on May 21, 2016 In Worcester MA. Jill Stein of Lexington MA is the favorite daughter of the Green Rainbows. All of its delegates seemingly are committed to Dr. Stein for the national convention of the Greens in Houston TX in August.
The national Green Party platform included basic income for all regardless of work status, single payer health insurance similar to Medicare, universal good free public education from kindergarten through college, and replacement of fossil fuels by renewable fuels.
The Green Rainbow convention also endorsed the candidacy of Charlene DiCalogero, running for State Representative in Worcester 14th District and Danny Factor, vying for State Representative in Worcester 12th District.
There were two informational speakers. The first was Jonathan Simon who talked about electric vote counting. He pointed out statistical anomalies between the hand counted ballots and electronically counted ballots. The software for the electronic counters is proprietary and no election commission anywhere can review the software.
Even in Massachusetts the Secretary of State does not allow a comparison of hand counted ballots to the quantity of votes counted electronically.
The second speaker was Mary Lawrence who spoke on animal rights. She made an interesting observation. Ms. Lawrence said that when farm animals are treated badly, the workers on those farms are also treated badly. This bad treatment eventually finds its way into the general society.
The Green Rainbow Party adopted a support resolution for BlackLives Matter during its 2015 convention. This was well ahead of the Democratic and Republican parties.
As a part of this convention the Green Rainbows organized a workshop on racism and BlackLives Matter. The workshop leader was scheduled to be Julius Jones, who confronted Secretary Clinton in New Hampshire last year. Unfortunately he had to cancel.
Something of a crisis was handled well by the convention coordinator, David Spanagel. He recruited Darlene Elias, a leader of the BlackLives Matter civil rights movement in Holyoke MA. A local activist from Worcester assisted her. The discussion was energized and focused on how to interrupt offense behavior. Merelice, a town representative, from Brookline spoke of her efforts to fight rcism at City Hall.
Other workshops included a discussion of the fight against the gas pipelines through Massachusetts and a workshop on Global climate change.
This upcoming election will be a test for the Greens nationally. They might grow with the disgust seen for Trump and the mistrust of Clinton.
Regardless the Green Rainbows seem on the verge of a break through on several local levels.
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