{news} New London Day profiles Scott Deshefy

[David Bedell]

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=a48a6069-6c70-40df-b619-872512f2c1d0

Green: A Color Outside The Lines

By Paul Choiniere
p.choiniere@ theday.com
Published on 9/28/2008 in Home »Editorial »Editorial Columns

The Editorial Board recently sat down with G. Scott Deshefy, the Green Party
candidate for Congress in the 2nd District. This is the time of year when
the candidates are kind enough to visit with the board, helping it decide
who The Day will endorse in the coming election.

Though incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Courtney and his Republican challenger,
Sean Sullivan, are fine candidates, the Deshefy interview was my favorite so
far (we have a meeting scheduled with Sullivan).

This is not because I agree with the Green Party candidate on many of the
issues, because I don't. What made the interview so interesting and
different was Deshefy's willingness to color outside the lines that
candidates in the two major parties know they have to keep the crayons in.
Those voters who say they are tired of the same old rhetoric should give
these third party candidates a listen. They certainly have something
different to say.

For instance, anyone running for office in eastern Connecticut is going to
be pro-submarine, that's a given. Groton is, after all, the self-proclaimed
"Submarine Capitol of the World." Electric Boat shipyard, where they make
the submarines, along with the Naval Submarine Base, are two of the state's
largest employers and make up a major part of the region's economy.

Major party candidates that visit with the board argue how they will protect
the base from any attempt to close it and can do a better job getting more
federal dollars to build more submarines, followed by reasons their opponent
won't do nearly as well on those counts.

It was refreshing, then, to hear Deshefy call Virginiaclass attack
submarines, "just another earmark." As Deshefy sees it, the need to build
attack submarines ended with the Cold War and their continued construction
is just a jobs program. Build non-military ships and electric buses at EB,
said Deshefy.

Now I happen to disagree. A growing Chinese Navy and the ability of the
attack submarines to assist in surveillance gathering and special operations
are just a couple of reasons they remain valuable to national defense.

But I had to admire a candidate willing to say exactly what he thought and
not what he expects most voters want to hear. Of course, such frankness,
along with a lack of funding and an inability to get much media attention,
explains why his election chances are close to nil.

You also won't hear too many candidates in this defense-industry region
talking about their plans, if elected, "to introduce legislation to reduce
the military budget by 20-25 percent" and close most of the nation's 130
overseas bases. Deshefy would reallocate the money into middle-class tax
cuts, rebuilding the nation's aging infrastructure, viable mass transit,
improved schools and making a college education more affordable.

In fact, he sees a need to reorganize and reprioritize our society. He wants
to re-invigorate local farming to reduce the cost and pollution of trucking
or shipping in food from faraway factory farms.

The nation's never-ending economic growth model cannot subsist, he contends.
The nation, according to the Green candidate, needs a sustainable approach
that conserves natural resources and respects the environment. The Greens
want more commerce to be local, to end the suburban sprawl and to return to
the village model.

Americans might even consider doing with less, Deshefy said, maybe going
vegetarian twice a week (cattle flatulence produces a lot greenhouse gases)
and leaving the car in the garage once a week.

Calling for self-sacrifice, to live modestly, to do with less, to cut
defense- these are not items found in the how-to-get-elected book.

But I don't think getting elected is what Deshefy and his ilk are really
about.

They're about getting a different message out, about challenging
assumptions, about providing an alternative to the relatively narrow range
of options that dominate the nation's political debate.

The Montville native has a bachelor of science degree in zoology and a minor
in literature from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Deshefy is a
supervisory environmental analyst with the state Department of Environmental
Protection and has had his works of poetry published.

He is an interesting guy and the election is richer for him.

Paul Choiniere is editorial page editor.