Green Party

In the 1970s, a social movement dedicated to environmental protection began to gather strength in the United States and Western Europe. A political party, known as the Greens, was formed in Germany, and it achieved some electoral success in the early 1980s. In 1984, a group of American activists formed a network of local Green "Committees of Correspondence," modeled after the European Greens, to work on various environmental and social justice issues. This group later became known as the Greens/Green Party USA, and it works mainly at the local and state level.

In 1996, a second Green organization was formed by the Association of State Green Parties, called the Green Party of the United States, or simply the Green Party. Although its agenda is similar to that of the Greens/Green Party USA, the newer organization places a greater emphasis on participating in the electoral process. In 1996, consumer activist Ralph Nader, who established his reputation in the 1960s by taking on the Big Three automakers over the issue of auto safety, was nominated as the Green Party presidential candidate. Nader appeared on the ballot in 22 states and won 700,000 votes, a strong performance for someone with a campaign budget of only $5000.

In the 2000 presidential election, Ralph Nader was once again selected as the nominee of the Green Party. He campaigned on issues of corporate reform, environmental protection, universal health care, participatory democracy, gender equality, and other traditional left-wing concerns. Although he was excluded from the presidential debates, Nader received a fair amount of media coverage and his rallies attracted thousands of enthusiastic supporters. This time around, Nader was on the ballot in 44 states, and he garnered almost three million votes, finishing third behind Al Gore and George Bush.

Because of the extreme closeness of the 2000 election, Nader was roundly criticized by Democratic Party supporters for drawing votes away from Al Gore, thereby handing the election to George Bush. (Studies and exit polling did demonstrate that a sizeable number of Nader supporters would indeed have chosen Gore if Nader had not been on the ballot). Anticipating a close contest, some progressive organizations called on Nader to drop out of the race and even ran television commercials urging liberal voters to choose Gore. They argued that a vote for Nader was a "wasted vote," since he had no chance of winning but could swing the election to Bush.

Nader, however, refused to drop out of the race, claiming that, despite some superficial differences, the Democratic Party was just as reliant on corporate campaign contributions as the Republicans, and that he was trying to help build the Green Party as a credible alternative to the two major parties. Nader stated that his goal was to obtain five percent of the popular vote, which would qualify the Green Party for federal matching funds in the 2004 election. In the end, Nader received only three percent of the vote, but he is considering another run in 2004