Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Page: A14 Author: Kathleen Kenna, Washington Bureau U.S. GREEN PARTY HOPES TO GET THE LAST LAUGH Members Serious About Offbeat Policies DENVER, Colo. -- President Jello Biafra would let kids vote and make it legal for their parents to do dope. "Lower the voting age to 5," says the 41-year-old founder of the Dead Kennedys punk band. "See youth apathy magically turn around when they know they have a real stake in their future and get to vote for their school boards - and why not their teachers?" One of three candidates for the Green Party's presidential nomination, to be decided at a convention this weekend, Biafra would legalize all drugs, including heroin, cocaine and crack, make Corporate America do time when it does harm and implement a provocative scheme for a "flatter" but not flat tax. "Let's be generous," Biafra says. "No taxes up to $100,000. After that, it's payback time." What's not to like about a political party that produces such presidential wannabes? Neither Biafra, a self-described anarchist, nor Stephen Gaskin, a 66-year-old Korean War veteran and founder of The Farm commune in Tennessee, is likely to beat consumer activist Ralph Nader for the Green Party bid today. But their most offbeat views aren't too far off the party's official platform as it launches its first, all-out offensive against America's two mainstream parties. The Green Party's platform calls for the decriminalization of marijuana, and for redirecting much of America's estimated $320-billion (U.S.) defence budget into such programs as universal health care, universal day care, and a "living wage" instead of a minimum wage. Nader, 66, also denounces the North American Free Trade Agreement and says he would pull the U.S. out of major trade groups, arguing they favour corporations over citizens. The author and Harvard-trained lawyer has vowed to make the Green Party a serious third choice in the Nov. 7 election. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans "can afford to pursue programs which offend their corporate paymasters," said Nader, who vows to get his name on the ballot in at least 45 of 50 states. "As a result, millions of Americans are turned off by the political process . . . (and) drop out because they think they're powerless and their vvote doesn't mean anything." "This is very exciting - it could transform American politics," said Joan Russow, 61, leader of Canada's Green Party and one of 1,500 delegates at this weekend's U.S. convention. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst