Keeping in mind that I've never lived in Massachusetts, I offer the following:
The Massachusetts Green Party's "quixotic" campaigns for constitutional office are probably based on the need to get a certain percentage of the vote for a statewide office (a typical requirement in state election codes) to maintain ballot status. Without that, a party legally ceases to exist, and their candidates are thereafter designated as "independents".
As far as the Green Party allegedly failing to target "troglodytes" (by which I suppose you mean relatively conservative Democratic officeholders), it's a lot easier said than done. Consider that there are residency requirements not just for the (Green) candidate, but for the people circulating (and signing) that candidate's nomination petitions. Most states' election codes make it pretty difficult to even get on the ballot, and when third party candidates do make it onto the ballot, they often find their names listed on an obscure, hard-to-find part of the ballot, where few voters will even see them. The media does its part by refusing to cover them, and by excluding them from debates (especially the televised joint press conferences that pass as "debates" in the USA today).
On the other hand, it's a lot easier to sit on the sidelines carping instead of bestirring oneself to get involved.
As far as the Libertarians are concerned, I think they've had a pretty strong --albeit indirect-- impact on the Republican Party, especially its approach to economics. Somewhat comparable to the relationship between the Socialist Party and the New Deal.
<tim at francis-wright.com> wrote:Compared to the Greens in the United States--who have had several election cycles to build their movement--Respect is a rousing success.
Take Massachusetts, where the Greens ought to have _some_ success. The Green-Rainbow party has not won a single partisan election. Ever. And its activities are limited to contesting a handful of seats every two years (7 out of a possible 200 in 2006), while running quixotic campaigns for the constitutional offices. This kind of campaigning is what makes the Libertarian Party the respected political force that it now is.
I would have some respect for the Greens if they strategically recruited candidates against the troglodyte faction of the Democrats. But they don't, and never have.
(To be fair, the Greens have twice won a seat in the Maine state legislature.)
--tim francis-wright ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk