I am campaigning for governor at a time when the limitations of liberal democracy have never been more apparent. The boundaries of public debate grow ever narrower. Corporate money rules the electoral process. The Republican and Democratic parties quarrel over details but are essentially united in support of fiscal conservatism, austerity, protecting the wealth of corporations and rich people, privileging the private market over public goods and economic growth over ecological sanity, “welfare reform,” the defunding of cities and urban education systems, punitive drug laws, and a post-9/11 program of permanent war. Liberal Democrats often have “good positions” on questions of civil liberties, feminism, gay rights, and the environment, but faced with an intransigent right their impulse is always to give ground rather than fight. Anyone who seriously challenges this state of affairs is derided as a utopian crank. The left, meanwhile, has been paralyzed, bogged down in a wrongheaded dispute about what is more important, economics or culture.
I am running as an advocate of radical democracy. Feminism; gay, lesbian and transgender liberation; and personal and sexual freedom are central to my analysis and program. Genuine democracy is not just a form of government, but a way of life based on the principles of individual freedom, social equality, and the power to participate in shaping the decisions and policies that affect our lives. As a radical democrat I oppose all forms of domination including the domination of nature that has led to our current ecological crisis. As a radical democrat I recognize what should be obvious: that people work at paid and unpaid labor, that we struggle to provide for ourselves economically, that we also have sexual, domestic, personal and cultural lives, and that we suffer from inequality, disempowerment, and attacks on our freedom in all these areas. A radical democratic politics does not compartmentalize these issues, but holds that they are all vital and interconnected.
What can I do at the level of New York State politics to advance this agenda? I support—and will publicly, repeatedly, militantly advocate—specific laws and social policies that further freedom and equality in sex and gender relations. I will push for electoral reform and democratization of the New York legislative process, without which there can be no popular democratic influence on law and policy. I will be an insistent public voice in defense of the larger vision of democracy of which feminism and sexual radicalism are a part. I will make every effort to build the Green Party as a social movement and electoral vehicle that will effectively organize on behalf of a radical democratic program. My campaign is not a top-down affair. I welcome and actively seek comment, advice, criticism and participation from all those excited by the idea of a movement to challenge the Republicrat consensus with a vision of fundamental change.
Measures I’m campaigning for include:
Child Care and the “Second Shift”
We need publicly funded, parent and community controlled, universally available child care; paid parental leave; a drastic reduction in legal working hours with a ban on compulsory overtime; and regulation of working hours to be extended to managerial and professional employees. Beyond advocating particular laws, I call for an end to the culture of endless work along with recognition that domestic labor and child care are real work that people of both sexes should do—and have time to do.
Universal Minimum Income
Single parents, overwhelmingly mothers, are a particular target of our current welfare and “workfare” policies. Instead of an adequate income, child care, and the right to stay home with small children if they so desire, indigent mothers are exhorted to find husbands. Besides its outrageous partriarchalism, this advice, at a time when so many men in poor, black and Latino communities are unemployed or in prison, amounts to “Let ‘em eat cake!”
Reproductive Freedom
Pass a women’s health bill that requires employers’ health insurance to cover abortion as well as contraception. Prohibit mergers of secular hospitals with religious institutions that refuse to offer women full reproductive health services. Make instruction in how to perform abortions a required part of medical training.
Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights
Amend the New York State civil rights law to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Recognize the right of same-sex couples to marry and extend equal domestic partnership and parental benefits to people, heterosexual or homosexual, who prefer not to marry.
Teenagers’ Rights and Sex Education
Social policy on young people’s sexuality must oppose the current fashion of unrealistic and pathological demands for abstinence. Instead it should focus on the needs of children and adolescents for a sound, comprehensive sexual education, which should be funded by the state and offered in public schools, and on the right of teenagers to adult guidance and support during their sexual coming of age. Publicly funded neighborhood clinics should offer free and confidential access to contraception, abortion, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Since many teenagers cannot talk to their parents about sexual matters, schools should offer counseling.
