I went to the party's state convention as a Big Island delegate supporting Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who was battling Benjamin Spock, the baby doctor, for our coveted presidential nomination.
Cleaver was in trouble with the law and couldn't make it, but he sent his wife Kathleen to speak for him. During a coffee break, Kathleen Cleaver chatted up my wife Maggie. "What did she say?" I asked. Maggie shrugged. "She wanted to know why I married a Jew."
This from a woman married to a guy who would go on to become a born-again arch conservative, make a living speaking at events sponsored by the Rev. Moon's Unification Church and allegedly abuse his spouse.
Ah, politics. The righteous causes. The high ideals. The pleasure with which I betrayed those back home who had sent me to the big city to support Eldridge Cleaver. When the time came, I delivered an impassioned speech in favor of Dr. Spock's nomination.
I think of that hopeless cause every election year when the out-of-power parties like the Republicans and the never-had-power parties like the Libertarians and the Greens start accusing the news media of keeping them impotent with skimpy news coverage.
Their argument goes something like this: "If the media would let voters know what's going on and where we stand, voters would throw out the Democrats and elect us."
The fact is, the voting public knows very well what's going on and what every party stands for. Voters elect Democrats by choice, not out of ignorance.
Republicans, Libertarians and Greens need to recognize that their problem isn't that voters aren't hearing their message. Their problem is that voters aren't buying their message. They've failed to convince voters that they have more to offer than the Democrats.
They're not going to change that by issuing press releases and whining that the news media don't carry enough of their philosophical platitudes. They can only change it by going into the community to sign up members, recruit quality candidates and sell their ideas house by house.
Give the Democrats credit. They are successful because they work hard. They recruit young leaders as candidates. They turn up big at party conventions. They get the vote out.
The Republicans, meantime, can't field credible candidates for most legislative races. And they think it's the fault of someone other than themselves that they have only nine elected legislators out of 76?
THE Libertarian Party, despite the substantial media coverage it has received over many years, gets only 30 people to show up at its state convention. How much more coverage can we justify for 30 people who have failed repeatedly to move the electorate? The Green Party, despite many hours of free TV time in 1994, didn't pull enough votes to stay on the ballot this year without another petition drive.
If these parties want to succeed, they need to worry less about media coverage and more about getting into the community and persuading people that they have something better to offer. If they light a fire among voters, I guarantee media coverage will follow. Look at Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan.
The Peace and Freedom Party had no beef with media coverage. The Star-Bulletin sent veteran reporter Joe Arakaki to cover our convention. And look where it got us.
