Williams joins call for “Green Tea” Party

February 26, 2010

Feb. 26, 2010

Maine Green Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Lynne Williams on Friday joined with other Green Party candidates around the country in reaching out to those involved in the national “Tea Party” movement and inviting them to consider joining with the Green Party if they are looking for an alternative to the Democratic and Republican Parties.

See what the Times Record in Brunswick has to say about this idea.

Many Tea Partiers have legitimate concerns about the direction health care reform plans are taking, and about trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded giveaways to Wall Street firms, and “are as outraged as Greens are about how both Democrats and Republicans are coddling CEOs, major stockholders, and other wealthy elites while preaching sacrifice for the rest of us,” the Green Party leaders said.

For her part, Williams cited many issues that provide common ground between Greens and Tea party members, and explained how the two groups could make a difference by working with each other.

“We need a Tea Party movement that opposes warrantless surveillance of American citizens, torture, invasion of other countries, and other violations of the US Constitution,” she said., “and a Tea Party that calls the ‘general welfare of the people’ – including the right to medical care – more important than the right of insurance and pharmaceutical companies to shake down patients and deny treatment.”

“It’s not a left-right thing,” Williams said, “it’s about people wanting their government to work, wanting their government to behave, and to listen to them.”

Williams said Maine Greens have teamed with opponents of a Democratic tax plans, partnered with libertarians in supporting issues such as marriage equality, and worked to make it easier for non-party candidates to gain ballot access.

“Recently I stood with Maine’s pro-gun lobby on one side and the Maine Civil Liberties Union on the other as we supported a bill in the Legislature to limit automated
police video surveillance,” she said, “I’ve had good meetings with Maine Tea Party members and with Refounders groups, and have support in that community as well as from the left because I believe in civil rights, local control and individual freedom — all of which are concepts found in our 10 Key Values.”

“There is a lot of common ground for all of us who are disappointed in the way the two corporate parties are behaving,” Williams said, ” A real Tea Party movement would look like the Green Party.”