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Third
Party No Charm
By
Joshua Citrak
There is no doubt that here in San Francisco we need political change. Police corruption, homelessness, job losses and inept city services are destroying this great city. Nothing in San Francisco works any more and it has been impossible to first, get any politician to admit things are broken and second, to get them to put forth an intelligible opinion and act on it. We demand change. Change from Willie Brown and Co. Change from the special interests and politically selfish propaganda artists that populate our landscape. So, one has to ask themselves, is it a good thing that our two remaining mayoral candidates are from the same squabbling, pandering board of supervisors?
Many people seem to think so, because of the fact that one of those candidates is a Green. The third party, it seems, is automatically a synonym for change. Nader. Camejo. Now Gonzalez- all perfectly acceptable candidates for the disenfranchised, self-defensive voter.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, right?
Our political climate is unique. We lean far to the left, and tell the nation that we lean even farther. So it makes sense that this would be a good place to try to become the first third party mayor of a major American city. I mean, why not? You pin words like ‘progressive’, ‘activist-minded’, and ‘socially aggressive’ to any candidate here, you’re liable to have a contender. But, I must ask, contending for what? To unite the voices of the people? Or just the punch line for another joke about California? What I’m getting to is this: third party candidates have proven themselves unreliable and grossly out of step with the mainstream political thought. The latter isn’t bad in and of itself, but when you are trying to accomplish things in office and you have a candidate like Gonzalez who says he won’t comprise his ideals for anything, you have to wonder how he’s going to negotiate a bathroom break let alone vital business deals like piers 27-31 or the new Bloomindales shopping mall.
Regardless of political persuasion, the most important trait an elected official can have, is one of cooperation and compromise. In order to be an effective leader, one needs to be an effective listener, and that means understanding that both conservatives and liberals can at any given moment have the best solution to any given problem. The mayor’s office is to be relied upon to keep the city running, it’s not a soapbox, it’s not a place for the morality of ideologues, unfortunately, Matt Gonzales has proved that he’s capable of either- proving it’s more important for him to talk up the Green party platform than address the issues relevant to San Franciscans.
Republicans and Democrats are shit, I’ll admit that. But both of these parties are steeped in tradition (however dubious) whereas a third party, like the Greens, only has its far-out rhetoric and ideals to cling to in the bitter darkness of election night defeat. Real political change will have to come in the form of a third party, however, one that embraces the common sense that we all seem to have lost somewhere. Politics, for a third party, matter less than honesty and integrity. And until we see those notions put to use in the place of campaign rhetoric, I for one will still be voting in self-defense.
Copyright ©
2003 Joshua Citrak
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