[published in The Green Paper, Issue 2, May 1991]

We hear from the anarchists and the socialists in the Green movement all the time. My goal with this column is to explore the exciting new territory that some Greens and some other groups are staking out — the territory that I believe is the future of the Greens and of American politics.

Greens who think this way take the slogan "Neither Left nor Right, but in front" very seriously. For many, it was the singular thing that attracted them to the movement. They recognize the flaws in the capitalist system, but know that socialism is part of that same system — that both are based on growth, progress, and the exploitation of natural resources and people.

They care about suffering in their fellow human, but have a basic work ethic that tells them a welfare state is wrong — that it makes things worse for those being "helped"; that it makes them dependent, like children, on the State. They respect diversity and individual rights, but believe that permissiveness can go too far — that there are negative forces in the world and that, without some rules, a community's values will erode.

I am calling the position the Radical Middle, with an appreciative nod to Harry Stevens for the name, though our views of what it encompasses are quite different. I am not entirely pleased with the name, though, because the word …

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