At the recent “Building a New World” conference held at Radford University, a presidential candidate was in the midst, yet no local media other than the New River Voice seemed to care. That seems to be part of the problem with our current political and media systems. And Jesse Johnson from West Virginia discussed those issues and others in a lengthy lunchtime interview.

As for the “two-party” system, Johnson, a candidate for the Green Party’s presidential nomination, stated that the Green Party was actually the second party. “The Republicans and Democrats are just the right and left wings of the Corporate Party,” he said.

Johnson compared the Green Party to soccer. “Soccer is popular everywhere else in the world,” Johnson said, “but what do we hear about it here? Almost nothing. The Green Party is popular other places. It’s the soccer of the political world.”

In the 2008 election, Johnson said he believes this one is pivotal, but perhaps not for the same reasons as John McCain or Barack Obama supporters. “When nothing changes yet again, that’s positive,” Johnson said, “those changes that we’re all looking for as citizens, I believe that after people have held their nose and voted for the lesser of two evils yet again, that there will be a huge shift.” Johnson said that independents and parties other than Democratic and Republican are already growing and those numbers will climb after another disappointing presidential election.

Does that mean that Johnson doesn’t believe the Greens have a chance in 2008? Well, he is a realist. And he believes each election is helpful in that it helps to get the word out about what Greens or other parties believe and how the political system overall is currently failing us.

“The problem now,” Johnson said, “is that the Democrats and Republicans have huge amounts of money to waste, they’ve taken over the entire electoral process, even though there is no reference of political parties in the Constitution, they control they media so the media says ‘You have two choices.’ So you’re never really faced with your options because you never get to see them.” Johnson commented about the difficulties of being invited to debates or even getting on ballots as someone not from the Republican or Democratic parties. “The people who are in power want to stay there,” he said.

Johnson talked about his endorsement for President from former Sen. Mike Gravel, saying he was honored to receive approval from Gravel. “When [Gravel] stood up [at one of the early Democratic Party debates], he said, ‘I know how to end this war.’ And he told them,” Johnson said. “He had ended a war as a politician—an illegal and immoral war just like what we have now. None of them had. So isn’t it ironic that he was the one dismissed and portrayed as crazy in the media? I think he’s an amazing individual.” Johnson said he has pledged to fight for Gravel’s idea for a national initiative for democracy that Gravel has been working on for a number of years.

Johnson expressed his desire to make changes in the political system and to further progressive issues such as universal health care, ending the current war in Iraq, continued support of labor unions, and, of course, better environmental stewardship.

Even though there are many who support such causes, some feel that they are “throwing away their vote” if they vote for a third-party candidate. Johnson counters that thinking, saying, “I always say that you never waste a vote unless you are voting in a rigged system. So the way that you avoid wasting that vote is to vote for your values. You vote for the things that are important to you and the people who represent them. If a huge number of people vote for those values, politicians will have to pay attention.”

In addition to running for President, Johnson is concurrently running for Governor in the state of West Virginia. Again, a long-shot for the governorship, Johnson was encouraged by his showing in the 2004 election as well as the political climate in West Virginia. He plans to make some waves in West Virginia’s election and bring some real issues to the forefront.

Unquestionably, Johnson has uphill battles to face in both races, but he is optimistic that he and the Greens will continue making progress and that true change will eventually come to our political system.

Tim W. Jackson agrees that the whole U.S. political system is whacked.