plinsey@thestamfordtimes.com
NORWALK — Green Party congressional candidate Richard Duffee says he understands the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
"The Republicans are unilateral imperialists," Duffee said in an interview last week, "whereas the Democrats are multilateral imperialists."
Moving to India in 1995, Duffee taught poverty law for several years and is basing his campaign on a platform of social justice in America and monetary reform across the globe. It is on such issues, he said, that both major parties ignore the lower and middle classes in favor of a plutocratic minority.
"I don't think we have any right to dominate the world," Duffee said. "While that's advantageous for multi-national companies and the people who fund political campaigns ... it is not so advantageous for the average American and it certainly is not for the average person on earth."
Duffee is pro-gay marriage, opposes the drug war and proposes slashing America's military spending. He supports removing troops from Iraq, which he said is a drain on this country's resources.
Money spent on the Iraq war and Afghanistan "is quite sufficient to recreate the infrastructure of (the United States)," Duffee said. "If that money that is being wasted primarily on weaponry and high-tech things were spent on teachers and social workers and health care workers and so on, it would be far better for the economy."
Duffee, 58 has lived in Stamford since returning from India in 2004. He has a bachelors degree is philosophical psychology from the University of Chicago and a degree in law from Pace University.
Though he sharply criticized Shays' support for the Iraq war, Duffee said he bears no ill will towards any opposing candidates.
"Chris Shays seems to be a very nice man, (but) I think his relationship with the Republican Party is fundamentally injurious to the country," he said. "(President) Bush and (Vice President) Cheney, so far as I can make out, really do deserve to be impeached ... for lying about Iraq."
Shays' campaign said the congressman is "one of the most independent" Republican lawmakers. "There are several issues where disagrees with his party, including stem cell research, the environment and a woman's right to choose," said Shays' campaign manager Michael Sohn. "Cutting taxes and the war on terrorism is where he agrees with them."
Acknowledging similarities in his criticisms of the Iraq war and those of Diane Farrell, Duffee said he goes farther, noting Farrell has not called for impeachment.
"Also, I am not convinced that Diane Farrell would have voted against the invasion of Iraq, whereas I know quite well that I would have," he said.
Farrell's campaign disagreed. A spokeswoman said Farrell "is on record as having said she would have supported the Spratt amendment" in the House of Representatives. That amendment, which failed on 155 votes, would have required authorization by the United Nations Security Council, or for President Bush to come back to Congress before using force in Iraq.
Hoping to get his message across through the Internet, Duffee has uploaded thousands of words to his campaign Web site and weblog. Duffee said he has been invited to participate in only two of 11 debates in the 4th-District race, including one held Oct. 15 at Temple Israel in Westport.
He expressed particular disappointment that he will not be participating in the first debate, which is to be held Oct. 4 and sponsored by the Business Council of Fairfield County and will include the libertarian candidate Maymin.
"The Greens, in the 2004 (presidential) election, got three times the vote that the libertarians did," Duffee said.
The debate's organizers said that at the time they made their decision, Duffee had raised slightly more than $800, while Maymin had raised approximately $10,000.
"The debate here is between Shays and Farrell. That's the race and it's a really close race," said Joe McGee, the business council's vice president for public policy. "We accepted Maymin because we wanted to show that third parties have a role to play, but they have to make an effort."