On my website http://seth4sos.org/ I've endorsed David Brownlow for US Senate. He's the only person outside of my party that I am endorsing publicly. Since he's supposedly on the far right and I'm supposedly on the far left, some explanation would help. Note that while I'm Secretary of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon and on the State Coordinating Committee, I do not speak for the Pacific Green Party on this matter in any official capacity. First some background, I do not believe that the left-right dichotomy is meaningful anymore in this country. The Cold War is over. Communism isn't a "threat" to anybody, and capitalism is all but bankrupt in this country after the recent economic crisis. Market socialism is going to be the way forward and that has been a rather well-proven consensus. Really the division has turned to a "top" versus "bottom" question. Who will be the benefactors of our market socialism? The haves or the have-nots? Both major parties are essentially unified (take a look at the recent bailout bill) that socialism will be used to benefit rich bankers. There are other recent examples: the bankruptcy bill, tax breaks for the rich, unregulated trade, etc. The Democrats fight for a little help for the middle class while the top tax bracket loots our economy, and the Republicans fight for the top tax bracket to have as complete a giveaway as can be had without inciting an immediate revolution. In the case of the US Senate race in Oregon, we have Gordon Smith and Jeff Merkley. Smith is a Centrist Republican and Merkley is a Rural Democrat who can leverage Obama's tide to unseat a popular incumbent. Gordon Smith votes 90% of the time with Bush and Merkley will likely vote 90% of the time with the Democrats. But don't forget the fact that the two party consensus in Washington essentially limits what actually is voted upon so that their disagreements are more like five or ten percent of the overall debate that we would see if we had proportional representation elections in this country, where Greens, Libertarians, and Constitution Party candidates could have seats at the table. In his ads, Smith touts his support of "green jobs", "education", "health care", "gay and lesbian rights", "Mt Hood wilderness", and "crossing the aisle" in general. Merkley, of course is a yes man, too, but he seems to differentiate himself by not being a Republican (not associated to Bush) and for protecting a woman's right to choose, which isn't even up to him at the federal level. Erosion of the right to choose happens at the state level. With Obama in power, you can also expect nothing to change on the federal level now with the third trimester ban compromise. That issue's pretty much dead except to Democratic Party operatives who continue to use it as a wedge issue to get votes despite every other time they have sold out. The Constitution Party also uses it as an organizing issue, but I wonder how long that issue will last before they have to switch horses. But back to why for the US Senate race we should vote for Brownlow, despite his being in the Constitution Party. First, I'd like to mention Brownlow's public stances and how they fit Green values: * Fervently anti-empirialistic, against wars of aggression: Decentralization and grassroots democracy, sustainability, peace and non-violence * Believes in the proper delegation of power from the federal government to the states: Decentralization and grassroots democracy * Opposed to abortion: Decentralization. While I would fervently disagree with his stance here, at the federal level this is a non-issue. He would recognize that even murder is prosecuted at the state level and thus be forced to move the issue back to the states rather than back a federal ban. He would probably remove federal funding of all sorts of abortion programs, but those should be handled by the states as well. We must admit that while the right to choose is important, it's not anywhere near as life or death as every other issue, combined. * Brownlow recognizes that we can't reasonably just cut everybody's taxes now that we've dug ourselves into such a big whole: Sustainability In essence, Greens are federally conservative and locally liberal. Voting for a conservative who also is anti-imperialistic and pro-states-rights, oddly enough, is in 100% compatibility with Pacific Green values. That being said, I couldn't rightly endorse him for state-level races, although, he's in favor of the Oregon Health Plan, despite being against federal single-payer health care. That's actually quite consistently Green. As for the other two candidates, Gordon Smith voted for War, and Merkley is going to push us into Afghanistan in keeping with Obama's "change we can believe in" message -- I can believe he'll change which country we'll send most of our conquistadors to occupy. A peaceful partisan thus cannot vote for either of these imperialists. Merkley went so far as to refuse Hala Gores' donation merely because she was a prominent secular Palestinian rights activist at the behest of AIPAC, a major pro-empire lobby. Gordon Smith was "for the war before he was against it", but again, he won't be bringing our troops home either for similar reasons Merkley opposed the Iraq war -- wrong tactics. Another major reason why I support Brownlow is that he's not taking lots of money -- really he's not fundraising much at all. He's pretty much financially independent, has stable work, and is self-sufficient. He's not running to be a proxy for some special interest that's been helping put him into office. That to me is a huge plus. I believe then he'll be able to actually uphold the Constitution (c.f. the abortion caveats above) and even work toward decentralizing power back to the states where it belongs. Also, any third party candidate is more likely to receive my support. I have a policy of not endorsing the other two party candidates because anybody who runs under those parties is invariably already sold out to their large network of money. I still am open to the possibility, but the fact of the matter is that once you've entered the two major party machinery, you've dirtied your hands in blood money and corruption. And probably most importantly, if he gets a lot of votes, it will send a strong message to the Republicans that preference voting in the Oregon Constitution (Article II, Section 16), should be enabled. The more Greens vote for Brownlow, the more it will look like Republicans squandered their (apparently large) majority by opposing real electoral reform, while at the same time Smith will be going after the middle -- for renewable energy investment and other majoritarian ideas that Oregonians like. We win in both cases, and there will be a false appearance of a conservative mandate while a Democrat will win anyways. Wins all around, while not giving Merkley the appearance of a mandate (by not gaining a majority). If you vote FOR Merkley, you weaken our chances in four years of getting our platform adopted. And while Merkley's in office, the next time we run, with Merkley's non-majority, the Pacific Green Party's candidate will be VERY influential in the next race, as Merkley will be forced to adopt much of our platform to silence our eventual candidate, if we don't have IRV by then. Voting for Brownlow thus pushes IRV majority elections in two separate election cycles. It's much easier for Greens to run against a sitting Democrat than a Republican. We can actually run against a candidate after seeing how he votes rather than a "fake" Democrat that runs as an opposition candidate to a "big bad Republican". Voting for Brownlow is a big win all around. So, with all that said, for many reasons, and with no significant issues, except for the right to choose issue, which I think is not a significant issue in this particular race at this time, I believe it is not only safe to vote for Brownlow, but it's the best vote a Pacific Green can do given the three choices on the ballot. He's really the best person for the job in the race and won't be a lesser of three evils choice (where an undervote or write-in would have been necessary). So please, vote for David Brownlow for US Senate if you support Pacific Green values. http://www.davebrownlow.com/ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3164978429701079598