I haven't discussed the green party convention since I didn't have a chance to watch it since I was away over the weekend, but I got to see a bunch of it last night and today on Youtube. All in all, my opinion of it was positive, more positive than the other three conventions. It wasn't perfect, but we're never going to see a perfect convention since I disagree with different factions on different issues.
The greens spent a lot of time focusing on the issues that the democrats don't want to talk about. They were openly critical of the democrats, and openly critical of their do nothing approaches to politics, fear mongering, and the fact that they expect people to vote for them but they never deliver. According to the greens, this is a long standing tactic going back to even the 1970s with their campaigns against Nixon (back when the party was fracturing). They've always held the left in contempt, they've always demanded they sit down and shut up, and they always demanded they fall in line. They were very welcome to Sanders supporters in coming to the party, which I liked. They also had a lot of different bylaws than the democrats do, like equal time for all speakers, a dedication to nonviolence as part of their platform, etc.
I also noticed that while the democrats are quick to play the privilege card, a major emphasis the greens have had this convention is for the rights of nonwhite people, ironically. The democrats try to paint the greens as "pasty white" privileged suburbanites and college bros, but there was a heavy focus on the rights of African Americans and their issues, native Americans, etc. They brought up a lot of stuff from America's past that we've done wrong....native American genocide, suppression of the rights of African Americans, etc.
As a matter of fact, I think they may have overdone it. I think that these guys came off as the stereotypical "America haters" you will see the republican party harp on the left about. They criticized genocide, oppression, they said stuff that if we were any other country we would be bombing ourselves, and even criticized our decision to nuke Japan at the end of World War II. It's like, everything the US does is wrong or something. Look, America has issues, and admitting we have a problem is the first step to fixing them, but I think they went a little over the top with it where it took too much of the focus. I do admit it was a refreshing change from the other conventions that went on about how great we are and reinforced the same old cultural values that deserve criticism, but still. It just took too much of the focus and will be seen by outsiders negatively. Maybe I'm just overreacting because I'm not used to seeing that much criticism of my country in one place though. Most of their criticisms weren't totally wrong, although I would disagree with them somewhat on foreign policy issues and the nuking of Japan in WWII. I just think that the world is a bit more nuanced and that our actions aren't so black and white. That applies both ways too...to those who want to whitewash our history, and those who want to act like we're an evil empire. The truth is somewhere in between.
Regardless, anyone who tries to claim that the green party supporters are privileged should seriously listen to them once in a while. They talk more about helping the underprivileged than even the democrats, and they focus on real problems and real solutions, not feel good symbolism.
As for the major speeches. Jill Stein's was good as far as Stein goes (I don't think she's a good speaker), but she was very open and inclusive toward people from many walks of life and did a pretty decent job making the case for the greens over the democrats.
Assange's speech was okay. It focused on his whistleblowing more than anything, but he did make jabs at the two party system as well, claiming Hillary was committing extortion against the democratic voters via her actions (I've made similar comparisons) and claiming that the difference between her and Trump is that between cholera and gonnorhea. That might go a bit far. I think one is worse than another. I think Trump is absolutely terrible while Clinton would only be half terrible. So I think it would be like, say, gonnorhea vs cancer. Both suck, but there is a distinct choice between them.
All in all though, while they were a bit too far left hippie-ish for my tastes, they're still preferable to the other parties I guess at this point. They are pretty much dead on about why the democrats aren't going to fix anything, the republicans are awful, libertarians are republicans without a lot of the religious nonsense. Greens seem like progressives who want to get crap done at least, and they've shown themselves to be the most viable party for my politics at this current point in time. I guess I'll support them. It would be good to see some of their worldview represented in politics considering how badly the two party system is failing us right now.
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