Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, is back.
Jill Stein:
"I'm running for president to offer a choice for the people outside the failed two-party system. We'll put a pro-worker, anti-war, climate emergency agenda front and center in this election and on the ballot in November."
Jill Stein's votes may have been the margin that elected Donald Trump in 2016. Jill Stein says she has no regrets.
“There are differences between Clinton and Trump, no doubt, but they’re not different enough to save your life, to save your job, to save the planet."
Her Green Party candidacy got 1.4 million votes in 2016. In Michigan, Stein received more than 51,000 votes; Hillary Clinton lost by fewer than 11,000. In Wisconsin, Trump’s won by 23,000 votes; Stein got 31,000. In Pennsylvania she got 50,000 votes; Trump won by 44,000.
Jill Stein has an easily understood, predictable platform that reflects the ideals and policy goals of a great many Democrats, including Joe Biden. Her platform is a wish list. She wants a peaceful, prosperous, healthy world where everyone gets what they want and need.
Economy: "We need an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and powerful. To reverse surging inequality and insecurity, we need an Economic Bill of Rights, including the right to a living-wage job, housing, food, healthcare, education and more, so that all of us are guaranteed the basic security for a good life."
Environment: "We need a Green New Deal with massive investment in green jobs, industries, and technologies to revitalize the American economy, improve our quality of life, protect our planet and safeguard our children’s future."
Peace: "We must end the endless wars and create a new foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights to oppose violence, occupation, and apartheid."
Democracy: "We need to revive our democracy with a full spectrum of reforms to empower the people, including real choice on the ballot - because without freedom of choice in elections, there is no democracy."
The Green Party is already on the ballot in battleground Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Arizona requires only 34,000 valid signatures and the Green Party has already collected 41,000. Nevada only requires signatures equalling 1% of the votes for U.S. Representatives. Georgia will be difficult. The state Green Party has dis-affiliated with the national party over the issue of transgender rights, and it takes getting 20% of the vote for Georgia governor for a party to be on the ballot -- a tough lift.
Jill Stein is a near-classmate at Harvard. She is 73 years old. She (like Cornell West) graduated in 1973, two years after me. I am unaware of meeting or sharing classes with either of them. Stein went to Harvard's medical school after college. She became a physician living and practicing in Massachusetts. She became active in Physicians for Social Responsibility. She resigned a position on the Town Council of the City of Lexington, to run for governor against Mitt Romney.
In 2012 she ran for president on the Green Party ticket. She said "Romney is a wolf in a wolf's clothing, Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing, but they both essentially have the same agenda."
The Jill Stein candidacy is likely to win votes that might otherwise have gone to Biden. She describes a joyful destination. Biden is mired in grim reality of trying to implement much of it. Biden has polled poorly among young voters, even ones with liberal/progressive policy positions. Biden's support for Israel may further weaken him among voters in their 20s, who as a group are more critical of Israel than are older voters.
There will be two messages at cross purposes leading up to the 2024 election. One, coming from third party candidates, is that the major parties have given us two unsatisfactory choices, so let's send a message of disapproval and vote for one's ideals. The other message, coming from Democrats, is that Trump is uniquely crazy, criminal, and dangerous. A vote for anyone but Biden empowers a strong-man demagogue. There is no reason to think Trump will attempt to appear temperate in character. Trump will condemn Biden harshly for trying to do exactly the kinds of things Stein favors. That should help Biden.
Still, net-net, Jill Stine is trouble for Democrats.
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8 comments:
People shouldn’t be afraid to vote their conscience. If Trump winds up in the White House instead of the Big House, it won’t be the fault of those who vote for Jill Stein. It will be due solely to those who have no conscience and vote for the psychopath.
Ralph Nader gave us Bush rather than Gore. Jill Stein will give us Trump rather than Biden. Does she really think there is no difference between the two in terms of what she believes in? It strikes me as being disloyal to Mother Earth for what, some type of purity?
She looks like the spoiler that she wants to be. She looks mean and bitter. How is she going to work with the GQP in Congress? How is she going to get past the courts, including the Supreme Court?
She could be the next Ralph Nader. Her name will be worse than mud. Go ahead Jill. What a foolish, dangerous moron.
The excesses of the far left are starting to fracture their connection to the Democratic Party. Adding the Jill Stein candidacy to the far left’s pro-Hamas response to October 7 just furthers the process.
The Democrats need to make a choice: electoral success, or the ideology of the far left. I am hoping they will choose to be smart.
Jill Stein is a physician that's joined Doctors Without Borders, WHO and many others in condemning Israel’s attacks on hospitals.
The horrific attack by Hamas against Israel killed 1,200 Israelis including 30 children. The horrific response by Israel has killed over 11,000 Palestinians including over 4,000 children.
The slaughter of civilians deserves to be condemned, whether Israeli or Palestinian – there’s nothing “pro-Hamas” about it.
I am going to resist the temptation to respond to anti-Israel propaganda and, by doing so, derail this thread away from Peter’s intended topic.
All wars are terrible and the civilians always suffer the most. Sure, Hamas started it, but the Israel's response has been over the top. Israel wants to wipe out Hamas forever. Hamas wants to destroy Israel forever. In other words, there will be no end to it. The fighting will stop at some point, but will then continue later on. I don't believe there ever will be peace in the Middle East in my lifetime or even my grandchildren's lifetime. So, get used to it. It just flares up from time to time. The worst part is that children have to die on both sides. What did they do wrong? It's the innocent that have to suffer.
Remember when Elizabeth Warren's husband turned down her beer offer on camera when she was trying to look relatable?
For the same reason "Weakest Link" failed as a show, nobody wants to be lectured. Jill Stein comes off as someone who will bitch over having three beers after work rather than the normal two. She could be 100% right but Republicans are tired of being told how wrong they are.
Jill Stein is going nowhere unless propped, and she doesn't have the political capital to be propped.
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