Going Green

Prior to 2000, I'd never felt the need to get involved in Presidential elections. In 1996, I had gotten fed up with the direction the Democrats and Republicans were heading and voted for Ralph Nader, who was running as the Green Party candidate that year. I didn't think much of it, and it really didn't matter, because all of the Electoral College votes were going to go to Bill Clinton anyway. Even Ralph Nader didn't actively campaign for President that year. The Green Party just wanted a name to stick on the ballot. And it was a name good enough for me to vote for.

In 2000, things changed. Because Clinton was wrapping up his second term, the USA was going to get a new President. All of a sudden, Nader wanted to be an active participant. He traveled across the country, challenging the major party candidates. But he was never allowed to take part in the debates. Everything was strictly grass roots for him.

Abed and I were totally backing him. We'd gotten word that he was going to hold a rally in San Diego and made plans to go. It was held at a community center. There were at least 200 people there. (Yeah, it wasn't a large crowd, but it was standing room only.) I arrived before Abed and Qued got there. I saw them come in a little later. A local folk/new age ensemble performed music before he took the stage. I could also see representatives of San Diego media in the room.

His entrance was welcomed by a lot of applause. He came out and made a few generic comments. One of the things he did was start griping about the local news media. First, it started with him having watched the weather and getting upset because they were talking a lot of conditions without stating what the weather was going to do that day. He was trying to come across as humorous and light-hearted about it. Then, he started digging into how the media doesn't really focus a lot on the positive aspects of what is going on locally. This wasn't enough to dissuade me from voting for him, but my first thought was that he hadn't done any research before making that statement. I could tell you from six years of monitoring local TV news that the stations did cover how a lot of people and organizations were trying to help their community to grow.

He spent the rest of the rally criticizing how politics worked in Washington, DC. I'm pretty certain he knew at the time he didn't stand a chance, but it was nice to see him put so much effort into it.

A few months later, Abed told me he had been asked to MC a Green Party rally that was going to be held outside Horton Plaza a couple of weeks before the election. He said it was going to involve a few people carrying a casket that would signify the death of democracy. And then, the signs were going to be removed from the coffin to reveal the words "Two Party System." They were going to march around Horton Plaza with the coffin.

I attended the rally, which was in the plaza area outside Planet Hollywood. Abed came up and introduced a few speakers. Then some guys came up, carrying the casket. After Abed talked about the death of democracy, they took the casket away. I figured they were going to remove the signs later in the rally.

While this was going on, an older woman came up and asked me if I knew if Ralph Nader was going to be at the rally. I told her that he wasn't. This was just a local demonstration. She was there to give Nader a piece of her mind and try to get him to pull out of the race. She was worried about George W. Bush winning. I told her she probably didn't had much to worry about. (Even though I was voting for Nader, I felt there was NO WAY Bush was going to become President.)

While the speeches were going on, someone approached me and asked me to be a pallbearer. I guess one of the other guys had to go home, so they needed to quickly recruit someone. Since I was already all dressed in black, I must have looked like a suitable replacement.

I went over to the coffin and took my place at the front. No one seemed to bat an eye that I wasn't there for the original presentation. I was told that I would have to remove the sign on the outside on a given cue. We started marching into the center of the rally. Abed was surprised to see me get involved like that.

As instructed, we removed the outer signs from the coffin. There was a lot of cheering and we started marching with the coffin. There were TV news crews there covering us. One cameraman got in front of us and crouched down. He stayed there while the coffin went overhead.

We then turned right and marched down the street on the back side of Horton Plaza. This part didn't seem very well planned out. The sidewalk was narrow and there were only a few cars coming our direction in the middle of the Saturday afternoon. But we continued to carry the coffin and chant while a crowd of people from the rally followed us. After we turned the corned and walked in front of the shopping center, we were finally seen by the people who were out doing their shopping. I remember a lot of people didn't seem to like us promoting a candidate who stood no chance of winning. But we didn't care.

And then, after we started dispersing, a small group of Gore supporters showed up and started chanting, "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush!" But everytime they said "Bush," we would chant "Nader!" We had far more people than they did. Anybody nearby listening likely would have just heard people chanting "Nader" once every five seconds.

I watched the local news that night. I did see the rally covered on a couple of channels. And there was one that used a shot of me in the tease. We felt like we had accomplished something that day.

But all we accomplished was being able to get on TV. We had no impact on the election, whatsoever. Gore got all of California's electoral votes, but it wasn't enough to help him win. None of us had any regrets about who we supported. But a lot of other people across the country didn't feel that way and still blame Nader for Bush winning.

And the two-party system didn't die. But neither did democracy.