The Green Party deserves every last bit of the "bashing" that they are getting here. [View all]

I'm glad to see that so many progressives have learned the lesson of 2000. The Greens, whether it's Stein or Nader, are allies of the GOP. Period. Nader stated in no uncertain terms that he preferred Bush over Gore. And now Stein is running ads against Hillary in swing states (when she's not too busy attacking the US at events hosted by Putin).

And after 2000, nobody can argue that the Greens are irrelevant. It's not for nothing that the GOP helps them financially and runs ads on their behalf. No, they will never win any important election. Their platform is irrelevant, because they will never accomplish anything that it says. They aren't even trying to enact their platform. But in tight elections, they can give a decisive benefit to the GOP, as Nader did, and as Stein is trying to do now. As GOP allies, they are not irrelevant.

Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, so goes the adage. And I'm proud that here on DU, and in the Democratic party, most of us are not ignorant of history. We haven't forgotten that Nader helped W get elected. And why should we? We also haven't forgotten Reaganomics and the whole supply-side garbage that led to so much economic injustice. And we haven't forgotten Jim Crow, we recognize that the latest push for voting restrictions is rooted in the same racism. We remember a lot of things.

It's too bad. Because the Greens could have been, in a parallel universe, a positive force in American politics. Support progressive candidates, raise important issues, pull the Dems to the left, but stick to safe states in presidential elections and don't deliberately try to help the GOP by trying to reduce Dem votes in swing states.

But that's not the way they went. They've gone full GOP. And it's doubly insulting that they are trying to co-opt the Bernie Sanders movement, a great resurgence of progressivism, and turn it into a political tool to help elect Donald Trump -- something which is diametrically opposed to Bernie's stated opinion and also his whole political history of being a pragmatic leftist.

I'm sure someone is going to chime in to complain about the "Green-bashing", but my opinion is: keep it coming. Whether it's Sarah Palin, or Rudy Giuliani, or Jill Stein, every Trump surrogate should get nothing but criticism on this progressive forum, or on any progressive forum.