In American politics, the colors that matter are Republican red and Democrat blue. It's not easy being a Green.
Working to break the country out of this color bind, Peter Camejo, a long-time Green Party leader and Ralph Nader's running mate in the 2004 presidential election, fumed over the shortcomings of President Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during a Friday afternoon campaign appearance at the Humanities Building.
\Kerry gave George Bush 18 standing ovations in January when Bush gave the [State of the Union] address,"" he said. ""And now he's saying [to Bush], 'You don't know what you're doing.'""
Camejo also offered critiques of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq.
""I had this dream that I was [at Tuesday's vice presidential debate],"" Camejo said. ""And I turn to the vice president of the United States and say, 'Dick, why is it that when you were arguing that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, you didn't use the best argument you had? ... You should have said, ""Of course he has weapons of mass destruction, because we gave them to him!""'""
Camejo railed against both Kerry and Bush's policies on nuclear weapons, gay marriage and the environment, claiming both would rather protect special interests and big corporations than listen to the people.
Camejo also pushed for election reform, saying the narrow defeat of the Green Party's Matt Gonzalez in the runoff mayoral election of San Francisco last April is proof a nationwide change in the electoral system would help third parties.
""If you allow runoffs tomorrow, tens of millions of people would abandon Kerry and vote for Nader to express their horror and opposition to this war and the Patriot Act,"" he said.
""If you don't allow runoffs, you create a political prison,"" he added. ""These two parties do not represent the people.""
But one has a hard time accepting that Camejo is, in fact, what the majority of people want. He readily admits he is a socialist, calling himself a watermelon-""green on the outside and red on the inside."" In introducing Camejo, Nader campaign worker Jim Senyszyn said Ronald Reagan had referred to Camejo as ""one of the 10 most dangerous people in California.""
And when he must fend off attacks from Green Party members in the crowd over how Nader and the official Green Party candidate, David Cobb, have split the party, one wonders if the Greens will ever become a nationwide force.
They will not with crowd turnouts as low as Friday's. A Kerry campaign appearance by actress Natalie Portman last week drew far more attention on campus.
Jennifer Gile, a UW-Madison junior, said she wished as many people had shown up to hear Camejo as when she heard Nader speak on campus.
""I wasn't for Nader, but I just decided to listen,"" she said. ""I think if more people were able to hear [Camejo's] point of view, more people would agree with it.\
