THREAD: My thoughts on the 2020 Green Party primary, the 2020 GP national convention, and what this all means moving forward.

Keep in mind this was my first time as a delegate, and seeing much of what happens at the national level during an election year. That said...

The controversy in the primary started before the accusations of rigging. It started when Howie Hawkins gave an interview to @PRIMONUTMEG, saying he believed Russiagate, and threw Jill Stein under the bus for going to the RT correspondents dinner. That was a tremendous error.

Jill Stein is really popular in the party, and like past Green candidates, she faced smears from the liberal media and Democrats. One of those was Russiagate smears. Those smears were used to try and damage Stein and the Green Party as a whole.

Why would Howie Hawkins use time during an interview where he could hammer his policies to the public to disparage the previous Green Party candidate who is largely popular with the party? That kind of thinking made a lot of voters upset with Hawkins, and I was one of them.

I was pretty vocal about my support for @dario4america. I made that support clear here on twitter, during GA meetings of the @DCStatehoodGP, and in private conversation with other Greens. I felt that Dario Hunter was a better candidate who represented Green values much more.

Not to say that Dario is a perfect candidate. They don't exist, and I personally do not put individuals on pedestals. People have questions about his about face on Israel/Palestine (as do I) but I am not about to accuse anyone of being an opportunist because positions can change.

That said the accusations were nasty on both sides, and undoubtedly a lot of angst coming from Greens I saw started with that terrible Hawkins interview. That said there were a lot of accusations about the legitimacy of the primary itself and I would like to offer some thoughts

First, I can't say for sure if there was any rigging. I wish I were more familiar with how the rules were adopted, and I was not part of the process pf adopting the rules. A lot of those rules also matter by state, and each state's primary was different.

For instance, in DC we decides by committee to bind our delegates to the winner of the presidential preference primary, and there were questions about the qualifying rules for write in candidates. I can speak on that further if anyone has questions.

That said, there seemed to be some blatant ethical violations that some in the GP seemed to dismiss outright. There also seemed to be a blase attitude from some over the prospect of other candidates coming into the race late (e.g. Jesse Ventura).

Also, Howie Hawkins refused to address the accusations throughout the entire campaign, and really didn't address his opponents at all during the primary, which made it seem like he was running in a one person primary. That was not a good look imo.

When he was asked about the accusations on a recent podcast, his answer was terrible, and a bit insensitive since he made a domestic violence joke to respond to the question. This is not the type of rhetoric that will unify the party. And speaking of party unity...

Dario Hunter, who picked up over 100 delegates at the convention, is not recognizing the results as legitimate. Say what you want about that, but the GP can't ignore that a candidate with a sizeable share of delegates is not behind the nominee.

Ultimately leadership in organizing is about doing the hard work. Can you get people to the table who would normally not be at your table. There were 9 candidates running for the GP nomination. None of them think Hawkins is up to lead the party forward. That is a problem.

It is out job as Greens to do better, not to resort to ad hominem attacks and conspiracies about infiltrators and agents. I do not think Howie Hawkins is an agent like some do, and I do not believe Dario Hunter is a provocateur. It is more complex than that.

This is a failure of inclusivity and leadership. The GP should always strive to be better because we argue that we are better. And at all levels I worry that we are not trying hard enough. We can't put ourselves on a pedestal. Progressivism is ultimately about progressing.

One of the things that was also disheartening at the convention was some of the language I heard directed at black delegates in discussions regarding criminal justice and defunding the police.

I saw some white Greens dismissing the calls to defund the police as DNC talking points, and saying that black Greens who were talking about this were democrats. I also saw silencing tactics used to dismiss concerns as well. This is not new to long time GP members.

If Greens were to support issues based on whether a Democrat somewhere supported it, I would be concerned about the issue of DC Statehood, given the wide Democratic support for the initiative. I certainly hope we aren't that stupid.

That said, I do not believe the Green Party is dead. I do think that Howie Hawkins is a candidate who cannot unify the party, led a campaign that made some very questionable moves, who used rhetoric that alienated a lot of Green voters.

The fact that little has been done to address this is what is ultimately going to hurt the party. If the Green Party is unable to handle a bit of struggle within their ranks, they are going to have a hart time convincing people they are ready to lead a political revolution.

As mentioned earlier, a candidate who took almost a third of all delegates is not behind the nominee. Dismissing this instead of addressing it the way it should have will only end badly. I hope we figure out a way to do better soon.

I certainly hope this isn't taken as malicious. I offer this as an observant take on a process that a lot of people had questions about. I care about the party. If we didn't need to do better, than we would already be winning. Right now we aren't.