Monday, November 2, 1998
Third parties defy mainline politics
PROFILE: Dan Hamburg describes appeal behind voting for smaller
groups
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
When Dan Hamburg heard that the government wanted to build a
nuclear waste dump on an Indian reservation in California, he and
his wife packed their sleeping bags and hopped in their car to
protest the decision.
This type of community activism is what Hamburg says
distinguishes third-parties  smaller political groups in a
system in which Democrats and Republicans dominate elected
positions.
Hamburg is among the seven candidates in the California race to
be governor, of whom five are from third-parties (see related
story).
Hamburg runs on the slate of the Green Party, an international
party in 78 countries around the world and about 35 U.S. states. In
California, the party has been around since the 1980s. Greens
generally stand for non-violence, social justice, community and
economic democracy.
The two-party system has dominated the United States since the
Revolutionary days. Non-mainstream parties, however, have gained
popular support and played an important role in raising issues that
the mainstream parties haven’t addressed.
"Third parties can serve as kind of like itching powder. They
irritate people and provoke people to raise issues and concerns
that the two-party traditional, mainline parties do not," said John
Bader, a UCLA associate professor of political science and
associate director from the center for American politics and public
policy in Washington, D.C.
"They make people angry or start thinking," he said. "But they
themselves are never rewarded for their efforts."
"They never win office," Bader said.
Hamburg agreed that third-parties have forced other issues into
the political agendas of major parties, citing the Socialist
party’s appeal in the 1930s that later led to governmental programs
such as Roosevelt’s New Deal Legislation.
Fifth-year biochemistry student Katie Wang said that
third-parties serve a purpose, but that it will take a long time
before their influence spreads.
"Not everyone knows them. There’s bias from the media, who cover
only the two main parties and ignore the others," said Wang.
But others believe that the two-party system can be changed.
Melissa Wu, a second-year music student, suggests that the third
parties appeal to "younger people who don’t want to stick with
their parents’ views."
It is precisely to students such as Wu who Hamburg speaks to. As
executive director of Voices of the Environment (VOTE) Action
Committee, he works in challenging the two-party system.
"The system will change when people stop legitimizing the system
… by voting for the lesser of two evils," he said.
Hamburg wasn’t always a member of the Green Party. He served a
term in U.S. Congress from 1992 to 1994 as a Democrat, then
authorizing the Headwaters Forest Act. He jumped to the Green Party
after helping out with colleague Ralph Nader’s campaign for the
1996 presidential election. Nader had the largest showing of any
minority party in the Clinton-Dole race.
Hamburg is the highest-ranking former elected officeholder of
the either the Democratic or Republican parties to have jumped to
the Green Party.
Some students see smaller parties like the Greens as
inaccessible to the public. For example, Paul Ramos, a fourth-year
history student, said he has never been interested in the Green
Party. He said that the party emphasizes environmental issues too
much while not addressing problems that directly "affect
people."
"By focusing on environmental issues, the Greens alienate
themselves from the rest of the population," Ramos said.
Kelly Austin, however, votes for third-parties. "One of the
detriments to the dual-party system is that minority voices are
being excluded," said the graduate student in comparative
literature.
Students are key to the grassroots efforts of government,
Hamburg said, with education being a top priority of his political
agenda.
Higher education should be free, he said."With the (state)
surplus, we should wipe out student fees at the UC and Cal State
campuses," he said.
He also criticizes work-study programs, saying that "it’s not
natural that students should be working" while in school because of
the threat of impending debt from student loans.
It’s no surprise that Hamburg should be interested in education,
after being a teacher. He founded an elementary school in Mendocino
County that focuses on alternative methods of education, now in its
27th year.
Even faced with the gubernatorial race, Hamburg said that
"teaching junior high was the hardest job of my life."
With reports from Linh Tat, Daily Bruin Contributor.PATIL
ARMENIAN
Green Party governor candidate Dan Hamburg gave an interview at
Captgo Cafe in Westwood.
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