On the manifest: A debate party might be a divided party. Nou en? (2)

One of the concerns of the persons that criticize going to the media is that the image that groenlinks gives outside is the one of a spliced party. Accordingly it would be better to keep our differences inside the walls of our meeting rooms, and not loose votes showing that we actually disagree.

Well, I think that this is a figment of the imagination. The fact is that we are a spliced party. We do have differences of opinion, now and then strong differences of opinion. Try to hide this differences is not only hypocritical, but impossible. And again, using the same argument that we use to support allochtoon participation, the diversity of opinions is a plus, not a minus. Nothing to hide, but something to be proud of.

The thing here is that people that keep on hanging to their ideas, even after the congress voted against them, are seen as bad losers. But why? Actually that is what we all do, since groenlinks is always defeated in elections, and we keep on trying. Can we really and sincerely blame and consider wrong the people that is not convinced by the course of groenlinks today? Should they shut up for a while?

My answer is: not at all. All the contrary. Because the mere existence of other currents of opinion inside groenlinks guarantee that we reach broader segments of the population. Which is a good thing, not because they vote for us, but because that is the only way to understand more segments of the country. So to every person that tells me that Femke is too elitist, I can say “she might, but there is no problem with it, since there are others that aren't”

Actually, given that I mentioned Femke, I think that many of the upset people inside groenlinks could learn some from her. Her reaction to the manifest is: “we knew. This is a debate party” enough. Simple and wonderful.

We should not be afraid of ideological differences, as much as we are not (very) afraid of ethnic differences. After all, both the Platvoets and Halsemas of this party are working for what they think is a better party. Both are convinced that groenlinks is the place to be. So even if with very different ideas about what groenlinks should do, they are groenlinksers. As it should be. Let's (learn to) agree to disagree.