.
Former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney Seeks Presidency as Green Party Nominee
AMY GOODMAN: How did you go from Democratic Party to Green Party?
CYNTHIA McKINNEY: It’s a very good question, and of course, you know, I have now been to twenty-two states across our country, and I ask people who come to my events to hear me, what exactly was your tipping point? And so, I’ve learned that there are –- there is a community of people who have found that life is possible outside of the two-party paradigm. They have searched for resolution of issues that are of grave concern to them, and they have not found it within the two-party-system. But that has sometimes meant that they would withdraw from electoral—the electoral process altogether.
And so, we have a whole huge swath of the potential electorate who don’t even vote at all. And starting in 1968, many of them have said that the treatment of the Democratic Party of people, their children, basically, who were outside of the Democratic National Convention and who wanted only to express their opposition to the Vietnam War, that was a tipping point for them. Others have experienced—have said that 9/11 truth is a tipping point for them. The failure of the Democratic Party to support impeachment, which is really the ultimate form of accountability in our system, is a tipping point for them. And then, of course, we have this huge population of the African American community that has decided to withdraw itself completely from the electoral process. And Hurricane Katrina was like the last straw.
And so, what we now want to do is to bring those people back in and to demonstrate to them that it is possible for us once again to have this community of conscience of people who are willing to participate in the process and to make that participation based on shared values. And our values are, first and foremost, peace. The values that we have to express are ending the disparities, the glaring disparities based on race and class that exist in our country.
Read entire transcript of interview at democracynow.org
Filed under: 9-11, activism, Anti-War, Ballot issues, Corporations, cynthia mckinney, debate, election, elections, grassroots democracy, Green Party Websites, News, Peace, Political Websites, presidential race, progressive politics, Ralph Nader, social & economic justice, third party, US Politics, war Tagged: | hurrican katrina, impeachment. african-american community, Ralph Nader, third parties
Leave a Reply