BIG DIFFERENCE

It has been disappointing to see the Democratic Party under attack right and left in the pages of the Phoenix. On the right, you run a profile of the Senate race (“War and Peace,” Sept. 13) that suggests that it doesn’t matter who wins, except to people who care about which party controls the Senate — as if only diehard fans cared, and as if losing the Senate were of as little consequence in the real world as the Red Sox failing to make the World Series. As if there were no difference between Bruce Babbitt and Gale Norton, between George Mitchell and Trent Lott, between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas.

Granted, many of the good things people say about Susan Collins are true. She has a far better claim than Bush to the title “compassionate conservative,” and is undeniably one of the best Republicans in the Senate. If she were any better, she’d be Jim Jeffords. But that only reinforces the point that she had the chance to be Jeffords — to be the one who cast the swing vote against Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond to lead the Senate — and chose not to. Even if she only votes with the extreme right half the time, that’s far too often.

Even where there is some degree of common ground between Collins and Pingree, the differences are important. For example, Pingree and Collins both recognize that the holes in Medicare need to be repaired, but Collins proposes providing access to drugs through a Byzantine privatization scheme with a confusing patchwork of cost-sharing arrangements in which the patient’s percentage of the cost goes up as his or her need increases. The drug companies know there’s a difference between the candidates — that’s one thing we can trust them on.

When I wrote Collins and Snowe to urge them not to rubber stamp all the Bush nominees, and at the very least to draw the line at Ashcroft, I got a letter explaining that Ashcroft had promised that, if confirmed, he wouldn’t break the law, and ending with the ringing exhortation that “The American people deserve no less!” True enough. But we do deserve more. “I am not a crook” is hardly sufficient credentials for the office of Attorney General.

Meanwhile, from the left, you run a letter criticizing Harlan Baker as “arrogant and insulting” for daring to “assume that the Greens are his allies.” Unlike Baker, I would never make that assumption. That’s the tragedy — the Greens and the progressive Democrats ought to be allies, but the Greens have chosen up till now to write off the 98 percent of the electorate that votes Democratic or Republican. We need a voting system in which the Greens can make their voices heard without having to run destructive “spoiler” campaigns, and a Green movement that has enough respect for democracy — or at least for reality — to recognize that a minority cannot succeed in politics without building coalitions.

Bob Wake

Windham

MEIKLEJOHN RESPONDS

Democrats are desperate. Rep. Ben Dudley is seeking “dirt” on Green candidate John Eder. In the absence of any dirt, the Portland Democratic Committee, led by Harlan Baker and assisted by the “journalism” of Al Diamon (“If you see me getting smaller,” Sept. 20), is trying to fabricate dirt out of nothing. The latest “scandal” they cry, is that I actually tried to bridge communication between Democrats and Greens. The irony about these spin-doctors trying to paint me as a “backdoor” politician eager to “wheel and deal” is that it was Democrats who originally proposed the idea. During late July and early August, I received calls from numerous Democrats, appealing to me to use my “influence” to convince Green candidate Flower Noble to withdraw from the Senate District 27 race. I insisted it is not in our party’s interest to decrease the number of candidates we have statewide. Frustrated by the barrage of oftentimes harassing appeals by Democrats (a tactic they seem to enjoy using, as they before launched a “harass the greens” campaign in the 2000 presidential race), I finally called Portland Democratic Chairman Baker. I told him I could not in good conscience ask Ms. Noble to withdraw from the race. I then suggested, with tongue in cheek and hints of sarcasm, that maybe Democrat David Garrity should withdraw from the race to assure a victory for John Eder (as if!). It is entertaining that they can nonchalantly ask us to step down from this business of participating in democracy, and yet at the same time, be so offended when we propose the very same notion back at them. Let me make one thing clear — The Green Independent Party is not a subcommittee of the Democratic Party, nor do we exist to convenience or serve that party, which is our meanest and most vindictive opponent. Democrats want the Greens to concede to them for nothing in return. They fight tooth and nail to keep us from getting even one State House seat, or even a School Committee seat simply because they do not want us to come into power. Usually Democrats complain that we don’t work with them enough. When I make a friendly phone call to initiate a working relationship, they complain that we’re trying to work with them! Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The citizens of Portland must let the Democratic Party’s stranglehold of our Augusta delegation disappear once and for all. There is great danger in an entirely Democratic delegation — the biggest one being that Portland’s agenda will be co-opted into a partisan agenda of the Democratic Party, and will not receive the support from our rural and Republican legislators that we need to achieve our goals. A united delegation that is bi-partisan, or even tri-partisan in perspective, stands a much greater chance of success because Portland’s needs will be seen for precisely what they are. We stand behind all of our Portland legislative candidates, Josh Dolby in House 32, John Eder in House 31, and Flower Noble in Senate 27, as worthy individuals for your consideration and vote. The Democratic tactic of trying to taint me as a corrupt politician and party leader, and to disunite and diminish confidence amongst Greens exposes the Democrats for the true aggressors that they are, and further unites us in our cause against them. On a closing note, I do appreciate sincerely the alliances that I have made with the few Democrats here in Portland who exhibit sportsmanship, respect, and fairness to us Greens. When at the ballot box, however, Portlanders should make great efforts to discern between the “good” Democrats, and the ones that lately have begun to show their true qualities — hypocrisy, contradiction, and desperation. There may very well be a Green option.

Benjamin J. Meiklejohn

Portland

 

NB: The Phoenix has received a number of cogent letters from the public in recent days. Unfortunately, we could only allot a half page to run them in this week. To those who have written in and don’t see your letters here, we promise to run a full page (at least) next week, and your letter should be included there.

—ed.