I think it takes a bit of boldness to have hope. I mean real, deliberate hope in the face of odds stacked against you— The green party has grown to record-breaking sizes at record-breaking speeds since Zack Polanski became leader. This week the party dropped a new mantra: “make hope normal again”. It’s incredibly cheesy, but it does represent what a lot of us want. It’s also an intentional riff on “make america great again”. When Zack was campaigning to become leader, he made it no secret that he planned to adopt a kind of “eco-populism”, borrowing strategic approaches from Maga and Reform but replacing all the politics with something good. Since he won, we’ve been seeing what that means unfolding in front of us: Record-breaking support and record-breaking speed, back-to-back media appearances, Labour and the rest of the right on the defensive, unadulterated pressure to move the conversation to the left. It’s happening! The time is now. Get in! Join the green party!!
Despite voting for Zack, I was originally skeptical of the eco-populism approach. However, there have been two moments that made me “get it”. The first was probably when Zack appeared on a podcast hosted by Tia Kofi, a drag queen. Tia normally hosts the show in full drag, but for this one occasion she did it out of drag. And while Zack (a gay man) appreciated the concern, he made the point that this is not the time to be holding back and hiding ourselves. Because then we’ve already lost! This is what eco-populism means: Being up front and out.
The other moment was this week. Zack Polanski was asked the inevitable question, “Can a woman have a penis?” by certified cunt Piers Morgan. I had been wondering for a while how Zack would answer this question. Because if I was asked it in an abusive setting like that, I’d probably try to tiptoe around it and come across ‘reasonable’. Like I’d start with something like “Well it’s actually a bit more complex than that. You see, as we understand it, there are blah blah blah.” And this is the exact kind of response that gets thrown around by the right wing media as an example of “lefties can’t answer a simple question”, especially compared to right wing nuts responding with the one word “no”, which is of course, extremely scientifically not true.
Instead, Zack responded with a simple straightforward, “Yes”. And then I got it! Of course! Gah how could I not have realised this?? No squirming, no tiptoe-ing, no hedging bets: A raw unfiltered truth. This is what eco-populism means And the right wing media doesn’t know what to do with it. They can’t say Zack Polanski is squirming because he’s not. They can’t say he’s avoiding the question because he’s not. So they resort to personal attacks instead, eg: by pointing out that he used to be an actor, which is supposedly an insult(?) despite it being the same former job of perhaps the most beloved world leader in the world, Zelensky.
The personal attacks against Zack Polanski don’t break through because there’s no hiding or tiptoe-ing going on. The attacks only make the green party seem more of a threat because it shows how rattled the right is. This is the same luxury that right-wingers like Farage have had for decades, but now it’s in the hands of better people: It’s in our hands this time. We are not afraid of offending right-wing loons by speaking the truth. Yes women can have a penis, whether that offends you or not. What’s your obsession with women’s genitals anyway? Creep.
Join the green party: We need to win!!!!!
join.greenparty.org.uk