As one who was deeply involved with the GP of California for several years (my post on the current trainwreck is linked to from a previous discussion here.) I've never been able to satisfactorily explain how and why things got so dysfunctional. No one can.
Part of it, I think, is the non-parliamentary system of government in the US. In most countries, if you get, say, 5% of the vote, you get representatives elected. That doesn't exist in the US, so third parties exist in a mostly impotent netherworld, at least at the national level. This means - and there's no other way to say it - you get a certain number of marginal people involved in third parties, and this just slows things down in terms of organizing.
Factor in the GP penchant, at least in the US, for governing by consensus, and you have a recipe for things not getting done. At the state level of the California GP, if they are voting on a policy matter, and just one person expresses possible disagreement, then it has to pass by 80%. This not only is madness, it also means just a couple of people can completely jam up the works.
Someone once told me he was at a German Greens meeting some fifteen years ago, and a sign on the wall said "consensus is nonsense." They have a point.
Without getting too much into the details of the current conflict, Camejo is, I think, fighting a losing battle to keep the Green Party functioning as well as free from Democratic influence. On the other flank, ISO is making inroads. There may not be much remaining but a husk soon. Wish I could be more optimistic, and while there are vibrant healthy Green Parties in other countries, it's difficult to see how GP-US can revive itself.
