Conventions used to be important. There was excitement on those hot and humid evenings as we gathered around the television, a thrill in listening to the speeches of the candidates, a feeling of pride watching the democratic process unfold as delegates chose among nominees and the planks of their platforms. The televised battles on the convention floors of the 1960s and ’70s — hokey and nationalistic as they were — are as nostalgia-inducing as the footage of that last minute grand slam of the 1975 pennant race when the Red Sox, courtesy of Carlton Fiske’s refusal to give up, finally made good.

The rage on the convention floor this week is the Barbie for President Doll. But even with gimmicks, constituent interest has dulled to the point that voter research organizations expect fewer viewers than ever before to tune into the conventions. Savvy advertisers are therefore underwriting less, so in turn the major networks will make only a nod toward the conventions, and the public will see little more than the inevitable coronation of two warring — albeit similar — princes.

Both Bush and Gore are U.S. royalty; both grew up with silver spoons in their mouths, and the rhetoric that drips from their platinum tongues is gilded by decades of privilege and the best advisors money can buy.

Is it any wonder people question the point of watching? The two major parties’ candidates’ predictable hype may just further benumb the voters.

However, this year a third party is struggling to capture the imagination of the jaded electorate.

The Green Party, a grassroots organization gaining momentum throughout the country and no less in Pennsylvania, has nominated the seasoned activists Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke to challenge the status quo. Without access to the soft money that the two major parties suck up like sponges and squeeze back out in rhetoric and media blitzes, they’ve had to claw their way onto the ballot.

In Pennsylvania, major parties’ candidates need collect only 2000 signatures for statewide contests, third parties’ more than 20,000. The Green Party this week submitted more than 45,000 signatures gathered in a grassroots effort to get Nader and LaDuke on the ballot for November. Although these signatures are still subject to challenge, Anne Goeke, Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for the Association of State Green Parties, told MODE that it’s unlikely such a challenge could threaten Nader and LaDuke at this point. "The local candidates may be challenged," Goeke said, "because those are the candidates [the major parties] are really afraid of."

Some voters worry that third parties’ candidates will take votes away from the major parties’. Third parties emerge when the two major parties have converged to the center and befuddle voters with sameness; they sharpen the focus on important issues the other parties are working hard to sidestep.

If a third party is a voice to be reckoned with during an election, it can cause a major party to move away from its investors and back into the arms of its concerned constituents. Perhaps with the help of Nader and LaDuke the major concerns of the Green Party — among others, long-term environmental security and the harm inherent in living corporate driven goals — will come to the fore.

Whatever happens, the PA Greens have accomplished a great deal already, in terms of public awareness. And, because of efforts by the Greens and the National Voting Rights Institute, a temporary injunction to paying filing fees for candidates who cannot afford them was granted in the PA courts last week. At least this year, the less rich and famous will have ballot access.

It’s only August, but seemingly already late in the ninth inning of this election. A grand slam is unlikely for the Greens — if possible worse underdogs than the Red Sox — but at least they’re up at bat. Remember Fiske leaping in the air, waving his arms and willing that ball to fall on the fair side of the line? The ’75 Red Sox lost the World Series, but — just for a moment, at least — brought the disheartened fans out of their seats.

Read on.

Lisa E. Paige, Ph.D.