By Ian Logsdon
Retriever Weekly Staff Writer

The Maryland General Assembly passed a piece of “emergency legislation” this session--emergency legislation with a devious purpose. Emergency legislation aimed at one person. That man is Kevin Zeese. Kevin Zeese is an activist and now candidate for the Senate of the United States of America, and Kevin had a plan. The plan was to unite the Green Party, Libertarian Party and the Populist Party, and build a major unity campaign to try and topple the republican/democrat stranglehold on politics in Maryland. But the dems wouldn’t be put down easy this year.

No, instead they passed a piece of emergency legislation (called as such because it takes effect immediately after passage) that blocks any person from having multiple ballot lines on the Maryland ballot. This might not seem to be that bad, but what it means is that if the candidate is running for all three, he can only be listed as one. This means that if the other parties nominate him and don’t run someone else, then they risk losing their ballot line for the next election. But Kevin Zeese isn’t scared, and he’s completely up-front about the legislation being aimed at him. Mr. Zeese is running, and it’s going to take more than legislative attacks to stop him.

Kevin Zeese stopped by our campus last week, as a guest who represented part of “Liberty Week,” and he took the opportunity to talk about what drives his campaign. A veteran of decades of activism, he’s running on an anti-war, anti-arbitrary government power, pro-single payer healthcare ticket. Zeese feels completely comfortable discussing issues that leave other politicians stammering. He supports the decriminalization of drug use, increases in treatment, and the general restoration of liberty to America. He’s against the current American treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and the excessive divide in American aid levels between the peoples. He supports enfranchising the felons who currently cannot vote in Maryland and around the country. He actually supports universal voter registration, something that politicians don’t even mention in America. He’s concerned about paper trails for electronic voting, and wants to see elections administered by non-partisan officials. He wants to end corporate welfare, as we know it, and consider replacing it with investment plans, similar to the model which Alaska follows. He’s smart, quick on his feet and a dangerous person to debate, but the other candidates probably won’t ever have to be in the same room as him.

That’s how third party candidates are treated in Maryland, and around the country. The debates are always the republicans and democrats; the commercials, republicans and democrats. But neither of those parties really represents what people want; they’re far more similar than they are different. I’d go so far to say that there is more difference within the parties than between them. What Kevin Zeese can do is bring the willingness to discuss every issue, and to challenge his opponents on things which are usually a given in party politics.

We probably haven’t seen the last of the efforts on the part of democrats in the state to slow down this campaign, and they will certainly do whatever it takes to win if he is seen as more of a threat. But at the moment Mr. Zeese isn’t fazed by their efforts. With a candidate for governor and senate, state-wide the Green Party is starting to take a firmer hold. The party is growing, and voters are simultaneously leaving both of the major parties, mostly becoming independents or simply not voting. Now is the time to re-energize Maryland voters, and show them that parties don’t have to represent stagnation and concentration of power. A party is a place for ideas.