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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Senior seeks to raise awareness of Green Party

Senior Nate Wolf said he loves politics so much he almost put his last semester at IU on hold to work on a third-party presidential campaign.\nWolf, a fine arts and political science major, spent his summer in Washington, D.C., helping Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in his bid for the presidency. The experience, Wolf said, was a culmination of his journey toward the Green party. When the summer ended, Wolf made a difficult decision to leave his new city and come back to Bloomington.\nBut he hasn't left his party. Wolf said he saw the opportunity to form an active Green group on campus, and after a few planning meetings, IU Greens held its first meeting Sunday night.\nIn fact, Wolf added, establishing a solid grassroots base, might be even more important in the long run than building the national party.\n"If you build a strong national group, but then you lose the election and don't have support at the local level, that's it," he said. "We want to build up on campus and bring up our issues. We want to let people know that we exist here, now, and that (the Green party) is here to stay."\nWolf's decision to become active in the Green party stemmed from his frustration with Democrats and Republicans, who, he said, are taking more central positions to win votes. But by doing so these politicians alienate voters who advocate traditional Democratic or Republican stances and those who place themselves toward the edges of the political spectrum.\n"I've always believed there are more than two parties in a political system," Wolf said. He summarized the Green party by saying "it's a party that stands for reform to make government responsive, to uplift our values in the environment and to change government so it respects individuals more than private corporations."\nWolf said he supports Nader because Nader has brought to the forefront of his platform those issues that other groups have cast aside. Consumer rights, freedom to unionize and public financing of elections are high on Nader's platform. According to www.votenader.org, Nader has a 45-year history of consumer advocacy and has published such books as "Taming the Giant Corporation," "The Frugal Shopper" and "Who's Poisoning America."\nWolf maintains that votes for third party candidates, even if they aren't enough to elect a candidate, can force the government to respond better to its citizens. He noted that some Democrat voters have said they would like to vote for Nader but fear that a vote for third-party candidates would only take a vote away from the Democratic or Republican candidates with whom they usually side and who are more likely to win.\nWolf said everyone benefits from votes for a third party because members of that party receive more media attention, and the party that lost votes to it is forced to re-evaluate its positions and take a more inclusive stance on issues.\nWolf addressed criticism by right-wing conservatives that his party is nothing more than a bunch of environmentalist radicals. Junior Christopher Baltes, who classifies himself as a conservative though not an extremist, said he doesn't support third parties because they're often fighting for a "lost cause."\nWolf said he disagreed.\n"People like to paint a bad view of something that's hurting their interest and make it look insignificant," he said.\nWolf said environmental responsibility is one of the cornerstones of the Green party but that it has matured over the years and now encompasses a variety of consumer and business accountability issues.\nRegarding the future of the Green party at IU, Wolf said he hopes to get involved in organized debates with other campus political organizations and to make students aware of the Green party option by holding regular meetings. Some students are headed to Chicago this week for a Nader rally, and others are traveling to St. Louis next week to protest the nationally televised debates in which Nader is not allowed to participate. Wolf said after the election he hopes IU Greens can take up other Green causes, such as discussions on the corporatization of the University.\n"(Ultimately) you're not going to get involved unless it's something you believe in," Wolf said. "For me, I don't want to be told, 'Well, you believe these things, but this is the best you're going to get out of your representatives and candidates."

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