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Social justice, peace and the rejection of current foreign policies that promote war were some of points advocated by a presidential candidate of the Green Party Wednesday.
People should leave "behind the constraints inherent in the current political paradigm that forces you to accept torture and war," said Cynthia McKinney, presidential candidate for the Green Party and former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
People who believe in the values of social justice and peace and want to live them find it difficult to vote for the values in the paradigm of a two-party political system, Mckinney said. The Green Party creates a new paradigm for these values.
After six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, McKinney became a presidential candidate for the Green Party.
"I do not begin things that I expect to fail. That's not rational," McKinney said.
The Green Party of the United States, created in 2001, is committed to environmentalism, peace and social justice, according to the party's Web site. They try to provide solutions to alternative energy, universal health care and corporate globalization problems, according to the site.
"My relationship with the Green Party had been long standing," McKinney said.
She became a member of the Georgia Green Party in order to reciprocate the support and love received from the party throughout her terms in the Georgia legislature and the House, McKinney said.
The choice to not support the war in Iraq and working around racial justice were her hallmark achievements in the Georgia legislature and gained the support of the Georgia Green Party, McKinney said.
Though not the Democratic and Republican parties of today, the U.S. has had a tradition of supporting a two-party system since the beginning. So it is very hard for a third party to be successful, said James Galbraith, chair in government and business relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
"None of these third parties survive past more than one or two elections," Galbraith said. "They cannot qualify for federal funding and cannot elect anyone to Congress, so they have no permanent foundation."
The purpose of third parties in the U.S. is to take away enough votes from one party and deliver the election to the other party, Galbraith said.
"Third parties are spoiler parties," Galbraith said.
McKinney said she believes people who make these suggestions do not have a clear grasp on the facts.
"When one million black people did not get their votes counted, then who's the spoiler? This is exactly what happened to these Florida voters in the 2000 election," McKinney said.
The dependence on a third party for action would be counterproductive with what people want to achieve, Galbraith said.
"If a problem is going to be solved, it will be done by a major party," he said.
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