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Courtesy of Rob G.H. McCausland of Stop Big Media

She’s not your usual running mate to the presidential nominee. Absent from her career are the decades of big two political public service, gray hair, staunch power suits and the membership card to the good ol’boy’s club. Described as a Black Puerto Rican woman, she’s not your usual politician, but the Green Party is not your usual political party. Vice presidential running mate to Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, Rosa Clemente, a South Bronx native, is a Hip-hop scholar capable of speaking to the cultural influences of her generation.

            Born in the 1970’s, Clemente graduated from the State University of New York at Albany and Cornell University. Former president of her university’s Black Alliance and the director of Multicultural Affairs for her college’s student association, Rosa fought for such causes as the support for Puerto Rican political prisoners, independence for Puerto Rico, and racial intolerances in South Africa among many others.  

            Various labels precede her introduction such as hip-hop activist, scholar, journalist, entrepreneur and most recently, running mate to the Green Party’s 2008 Presidential nominee. It is her activism and the intellectualizing of Hip Hop culture that ushered her into her latest role.

            Her community organizing is partly responsible for forming and coordinating a Hip Hop convention that brought together over 3000 activists who worked to implement a national political agenda for their generation.

            Known for her cultural commentary, Clemente has written for various magazines including Clamor Magazine, The Ave magazine, and The Black World Today. Featured in such magazines as the Village Voice, and The New York Times, she’s also appeared on CNN and C-Span.

            As a wife and mother, Clemente created her own full service media consulting and public speaking production company, Know Thy Self Productions, which she developed to give young people of color a platform in which to be heard.

            Clemente’s persona as an intellectual stimulus will prepare her generation to ensure the rights of others and the betterment of this country.

In an election season, I reflect on how politics is conditioned to consider what is placed front and center.

About a month or so ago, I came across some exciting news. Not only is Barrack Obama soon to be the first African American selected as a Presidential nominee, but this season has also witnessed the first selection of an African American woman to be selected as a Presidential nominee for the Green Party. As a former Democratic Congresswoman and single-mother, Cynthia McKinney caught my attention. I not only became captivated by this news story because of the lack of press it received, but also because of her former Democratic roots. With many people tired of the shrinking list of differences between the to primary parties, I became more interested in a party that would consider nominating an African American women to represent their interests in the race for the White House.

Many suggest that third party politics is inconsequential. But several political second runners-up like Al Gore may beg to differ thanks to the likes of folks like Ralph Nadar. When researching the third party’s place in politics of today, several share the same sentiment. Why throw your vote away on a third party candidate? It is such narrow thinking that keeps many doing what they have always done and therefore getting the same results they’ve always got. If enough people demand that the media and political leaders provide more diversity of opinions that truly represent all of us, casting a vote may return to being the most cherished right we have in this country.

It really disgusts me that the only political news coverage we see is focused on the same old fogies operating from behind the scenes while McCain and Obama swing and sway to win the country’s biggest popularity contest. The media claims to only bring the news that interests their audiences but often they get it wrong. We’ve seen it in politics, in CNN’s Black in America series and in the media’s overkill of tributes to Tim Russert. I watched TV all weekend and didn’t see one news bulletin about the deaths of Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes. I found out when I went on the web Monday morning.

Instead of complaining, I am going to assist in providing that broader coverage of political media. This is not to dissuade current political positions but to provide all the options for consideration. I hope you’ll join me in seeking out all that the media, political or otherwise, is not telling you.

Coming from a family that serves the public, her mother a nurse and her father a police officer, it was natural for Cynthia A. McKinney to enter into the family business. After a roller coaster ride in mainstream politics, the former Congresswoman could no longer follow the Democratic Party’s growing reputation for lip service. Once her last congressional defeat in the 2006 election was official, McKinney left the party to embark on a Green political path more aligned with her crusade for truth and equality. Much like her police officer turned congressional representative father, James “Billy” McKinney, Cynthia’s 12-year relationship with her constituents was contentious and her involvement with supporters was that of the sibling variety. People either loved McKinney or loathed her to the point of targeting her career for a ’seek and destroy’ mission. Often labeled an opportunist and conspiracy theorist, some say McKinney’s relationship with the public in general and the Jewish community in particular was the most strained.

Cynthia’s activism dates back to childhood. Born in Atlanta, Georgia on March 17 1955, McKinney credits her father’s involvement in the civil rights protests of the era with developing the foundation for her public service. After earning a B.A in International Relations from the University of Southern California and a Master’s degree in Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts, Cynthia became a high school teacher and later began teaching at Clark Atlanta University and Agnes Scott College. After a stint as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1988 to 1992, McKinney’s congressional career began in 1992 upon her election to the seat of Georgia’s newly zoned 11th and later the fourth district, which was rezoned to included Dekalb County. She served the heavily democratic zone until 2003 when a Republican crossover ploy put her out of office. The scheme successfully encouraged GOP supporters to cross party lines and vote against McKinney in the Democratic primary within Georgia state law, which allowed anyone from any party to vote in any party’s primary, thereby electing her opponent who was easier to swallow. Because of the political chess game, the GOP was content to witness McKinney’s concession speech while the Democratic Party was resolved to let her go.

The political mainstream thought they had silenced the inquisitor, infamous for challenging Bush and Cheney’s knowledge of 911 events as well as the Democrats soft stance on waging and funding an endless war. With McKinney out of office, no longer would the tough questions be asked or voter fraud be brought to the forefront. Now, political business could run as usual. However, like the boxing opponent who would not lie down, McKinney took her political licks but kept resurfacing with the thirst for truth as her motivator.  As a divorced single African American woman, Cynthia was not one to roll over. She reclaimed her fourth district congressional seat in 2004 after the victor of her last political battle decided not to run for re-election. McKinney returned to her post only to resume where she left off fighting for the rights of the multicultured, opposing election manipulation, and requesting the release of records involving the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, and Tupac Shakur. She also demanded an airing of the facts surrounding the handling of 911 and the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. Ever the seeker for accountability, McKinney presented a case for impeachment of President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for their misrepresentation of facts regarding the purpose for the Mission Iraqi Freedom and the War on Terror.

Up for re-election in 2006, Congresswoman McKinney won the popular vote, but did not attain the 50% needed to avoid a run-off. As a result, she lost her seat for the final time. After finishing out her term disillusioned by her party’s lack of resolve, McKinney took up with the Green Party, a move that would take her political career on a new and exciting ride. In July 2008, former democratic congressional representative Cynthia A. McKinney accepted the Green Party’s nomination for President and named hip-hop’s Black Puerto Rican female activist and scholar, Rosa Clemente as her running mate. Set to cement the Green Party’s legitimacy and continue where Ralph Nadar left off, the McKinney and Clemente ticket poised to seek the support needed to acquire federal funding and provide the American people with a real choice outside of the bipartisan tug-of-war that has defined American politics for generations. With a growing momentum that is focused on the issues, and looking to tie up loose ends from the recent past as well as forge a new path for a more prosperous future, McKinney and Clemente’s brand of truth-seeking activism may give substance to the type of change the U.S. is starving to attain.

Like the pesky kid brother who wants to tag-along, the 200-year bipartisanship of the Democratic and Republican Parties gave little thought to third party politics. Originating in 1996 as the Association of State Green Parties, the ASGP, which gained big three status within the Third Party based on the voting performance of the preceding two election cycles and ballot access, wasn’t afraid to take on the two goliaths of politics. With the gain of party recognition thanks to Ralph Nadar’s Green presidential run in 1996, the ASGP offered an alternative to bipartisan politics. Commanding 2.7% of the vote across 44 states in 2000, Nadar earned a little over half of the 5% needed to land Federal matching funds. Nadar, who was not an official Green member, and the ASGP made a mark on the political map suggesting that there was a desire for something other than fraternal politics where only the  packaging differed and not the message. While it would be unlikely to find Ralph Nadar taking the oath of office, the group pushed to reclassify itself as a real contender in the political landscape by its attempt to capture Federal funding and a growing base of supporters.

Since then, the ASGP tried to continue its momentum first by reinventing itself into The Green Party of the United States in 2001. Then in acquiring numerous local, state and federal government seats across the USA, the group identified itself as grassroots activists, supporters of nonviolence, advocates for social justice and environmentalists. When Ralph Nadar moved on to run under the Independent platform, the Green Party found another spokesperson in their General Counsel and 2004 presidential nominee David Cobb. Unlike Nadar, Cobb attempted to gain political ground for the Green Party without causing threat to the democratic campaign; something Democrats accused Nadar of doing in his last Green campaign. As a result, Cobb earned just 0.1% of the vote or 120,000 votes across 29 states, losing ground from Nadar’s 2000 campaign that launched the Green Party out of obscurity.

The Greens displayed its willingness to stand on stilts and wave a stick at the giant with the presidential nomination of the controversial African American former Georgia politician Cynthia McKinney and her Black Puerto Rican hip-hop scholar and running mate, Rosa Clemente. With plans of returning to what worked and adding a little ethnic nitro, the campaign of 2008 Green Presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney is a bipartisan threat by design. A notorious Bush critic and a former Democratic Congresswoman known for her abrasive honesty and pervasive views on race and gender in every context, McKinney symbolizes the Green Party’s intent not just on swinging the stick but to make contact. Nadar’s strong offense earned the first two and half percentage points toward political legitimacy, which contributed to filling 231 political seats by Green Party members across America, including California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Now, the Green Party hopes McKinney’s brash questioning of the political spin-engine, her political survivor persona and Clemente’s intellectual hip-hop appeal will not only regain the ground lost by Cobb but will reserve a place card for the Green Party at the major political roundtable.