Green alternative to two-party politics

Were mine the only Green vote in the nation, I would still vote Green to preserve the possibility of real choice for my children. Otherwise, third-party voices will be snuffed out by the oligarchs who control our elections and own the two major parties.

Republican and Democrat administrations both serve an economy rooted in ever-expanding consumption of natural resources to generate ever-increasing profits, supported by massive arms sales and perpetual war to exploit the land and labor of indigenous peoples.

The Green Party offers an alternative to this combination of savage capitalism and centralized socialism that we have now fused into one corporate state. Green politics begins with publicly funded elections. Green foreign policy begins with an embargo on arms sales. Green economics begins with a new definition of abundance: the freedom gained by needing and using less.

Wealth is a simpler material life, making room for the infinite resources of the spirit. Green vision celebrates the small, not the big; the local, not the federal; conservation, not waste; cooperation, not competition; enough, not more. What wealth do we gain by investing in clean energy, sustainable economy, local community and gentler living?

The wealth of an ancient forest, a fallow meadow. Abundance of beauty, with leisure to walk more slowly on the Earth. The profit of evening silence, a thrush song. At midnight, ten million stars. At dawn, time to breathe.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Green alternative to two-party politics."