Show Us Some Green

"The station is going to be a forum for local music, for local writers and artists, for commentators who want to talk about social justice or the environment," said Green Party chapter secretary Jayne King, a former schoolteacher who taught for years on a military base in Spain. She was passing around a sign-up sheet for anyone who wanted to propose hosting a show. A sociology professor from Barry University pitched a program about criminology and the war on drugs. King herself planned a show about urban farming. A guy named Roland on Piano hoped to showcase his musical talents. He says he plays "save-the-planet-type music."

Mainstream radio — hell, even shamelessly left-wing radio — simply wasn't doing it for the Greens. "Randi Rhodes irritates the hell out of me," said chapter treasurer Bonnie Redding, referring to the former Air America host. "She's just a shill for the Democratic Party." Most political parties and media outlets, Greens say, are driven by corporations and profits. Even programs on National Public Radio are underwritten by sponsors. To remain free from corporate influence, the new radio station, like Green political candidates, will refuse to accept money from businesses.

At the fundraiser, which managed to come off as both low-tech (there was a cakewalk) and high-tech (two DJs battled with tunes from their laptops), conversation inevitably turned to the presidential election. Four candidates are in the running for the Green Party nomination; the winner will be decided at a national convention in Chicago July 10 to 13. With environmental concerns so prevalent in the national consciousness, locals lamented that more individuals aren't paying attention to the Green Party cause.

"People think the Democratic Party is going to [change the status quo]," King said. But even with that party floating history-making candidates — a white woman and a black man — "there are too many people entrenched," she said. "It's business as usual."

Party cochair Echo Steiner laughed at the idea that Democrats would bring about policies much different from the Bush administration's. "Look at their party platform," she said. "Half of it's about war and military spending."

Greens advocate "Ten Key Values" that include "grassroots democracy," "non-violence," and "community-based economics." The same essential values are shared by the international Green Party, which is more popular abroad — in Mexico, Brazil, and throughout Europe, where Greens are regularly elected to parliaments. Currently, 229 Greens hold office in the United States, mostly school board or library board positions, with a handful of mayors and city commissioners.

The Green Party's political director, Washington-based Brent McMillan, suggests that many voters share Green values already — they need only make the connection and identify with the party. "Look at the exit polling from 2006 — it looks like the Green Party platform," he says. McMillan points out three positions where the Green Party differs significantly from Democrats: the war in Iraq (Democrats authorized it, and most support a small but continued presence there, while the Greens advocate a complete withdrawal of troops); inaction on climate change ("Al Gore has done a good job getting the message out, but the biggest cheerleader for the international trade that contributes to global warming was Al Gore!" McMillan says); and health care (Hillary Clinton, McMillan says, is beholden to health-care companies that have funded much of her campaign — "In other words, she has almost no credibility.").

McMillan says it's not just liberals who can identify with the Greens' message — he's a former Republican. "I think Greens can appeal to the old conservative values," he says. Not the neoconservatives, like Bush and Cheney, he explains, but old-school Republicans who, before Reagan, traditionally supported ideas like women's rights and Native American sovereignty. "They didn't trust big business or big government," McMillan says.

Jesse Johnson, another former Republican, is one of four candidates seeking the Green Party nomination for president. "I grew up in a long line of law officers," Johnson says. "I was once a fireman and a paramedic." He is now a filmmaker and also operates a tree farm in West Virginia. "I've watched the Republican Party move away from its own ideals," he laments. He once considered himself a Republican in the mold of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt — "the most environmental president ever."