Green party candidate would bring fresh ideas to stale Senate

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Green Party
candidate for U.S. Senate Medea Benjamin voices
her enthusiasm at a rally for Ralph Nader on Friday in Long
Beach.

Much like the presidential race, the California senate race
comes down to one person ““ Green Party candidate Medea
Benjamin.

Like her presidential counterpart, she offers the same visionary
ideals on social justice, the environment, civil rights and
virtually every other issue that should matter to a politician.
Luckily, in this case our endorsement can be wholehearted since
Benjamin is, for the most part, running for second place.

Whereas the two leading presidential candidates are
neck-and-neck and a vote for a third party may drastically tilt
that balance, the senate race is already taken by the incumbent,
Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

It’s unfortunate this is the case because on many issues,
Feinstein is more conservative than her rogue Republican rival Tom
Campbell.

Feinstein remained hesitant in decrying Proposition 187, which
sought to prevent schooling and health care to immigrants and also
has made the death penalty a bipartisan issue.

In the March elections, she was also a strong proponent of
Propositions 21 and 22, which lowered the age individuals can be
tried as an adult and prevented same-sex marriages,
respectively.

In Feinstein’s pursuit of power, she’s run so fast
to the center that she has slipped a little too far. As she
prepares to enter another term, we hope that, at the least, a vote
for Benjamin will remind her of her roots which still stretch
liberally to the left.

And if the Greens don’t come to the polls in force, maybe
the fact that one in five Republicans are voting for Feinstein
rather than Campbell maybe shows she’s become more Republican
than Republicans.

Yet while Campbell appears to show some sympathies towards
progressive issues, he nonetheless is still a member of the
Republican party, and in many respects still supports conservative
agendas ““ especially when it comes to worker’s rights,
social welfare, and to a limited extent, school vouchers.

Fortunately, voters this year have a third alternative. Much
like Nader, Benjamin is interested in changing the way the
institutions of power work. She is the founder of the human rights
organization Global Exchange and has written extensively on issues
concerning hunger and poverty both domestically and abroad.

Recently she has played a major role in the campaign against
sweatshops and the movement to pressure garment and shoe industries
to pay workers a living wage. Benjamin has even had an affect our
university. As an adviser to the student anti-sweatshop movement,
she has helped to pressure the university into passing a new UC
code of conduct. Benjamin’s history clearly demonstrates her
commitment to social change.

One of her main concerns also involves the issue of campaign
finance reform. Like Nader, Benjamin supports publicly funded
elections to take financial corruption out of the political system.
She is also a strong advocate of universal health care and
providing services to the 40 million Americans with no health
insurance. In addition, she staunchly supports a woman’s
right to choose as well as gay rights.

These are only a few of the reasons why we support Medea
Benjamin for senator. We believe that she will offer a unique voice
to a senate solely dominated by Democrats and Republicans.