Whichever side emerges victorious, both Republicans and Democrats should face up to a much bigger truth: Neither party as currently constituted has a real future. Fewer and fewer Americans identify as either Republican or Democratic according to Gallup, and both parties are at recent or all-time lows when it comes to approval ratings. Just 39 percent give Democrats a favorable rating and just 33 percent do the same for Republicans. Not coincidentally, each party has also recently had a clear shot at implementing its vision of the good society. If you want to drive down your adversary’s approval rating, just give him the reins of power for a few years.
– Reason’s Nick Gillespie in the 2014 post: Thoughts on Election Day: Relax—Both Parties Are Going Extinct
Unless Hillary Clinton gets indicted, she will be the Democratic nominee for President. That’s just a fact at this point. So what are genuine Bernie Sanders supporters who obviously can’t support Clinton supposed to do?
My suggestion is to take a look at Green Party candidate Jill Stein. I’ve been following her closely as of late, and I’m very impressed with her intellect, courage and dedication to principles. She was interviewed earlier today by Democracy Now, and it was covered in detail by Salon.
Here are some powerful excerpts:
The Clintons’ own right-wing policies helped spawn the rise of far-right demagogues like Donald Trump, argues the Green Party’s presidential candidate. She warns that a Hillary Clinton presidency would only continue to fuel this right-wing extremism.
Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee for president, spoke on Democracy Now on Thursday. She blasted Hillary Clinton for implementing many of the same policies that Trump is currently calling for, and expressed hope that Bernie Sanders will consider continuing his presidential run on a third-party ticket.
The present electoral system “tells you to vote against what you’re afraid of and not for what you believe,” Stein said. “This politics of fear has actually delivered everything we were afraid of.”
“All the reasons you were told you had to vote for the lesser evil — because you didn’t want the massive Wall Street bailouts, the offshoring of our jobs, the meltdown of the climate, the endless expanding wars, the attack on immigrants — all that, we’ve gotten by the droves, because we allowed ourselves to be silenced,” she explained.
“The terrible things that we expect from Donald Trump, we’ve actually already seen from Hillary Clinton,” Stein said.
“Putting another Clinton in the White House is only going to make that right-wing extremism greater.”
“Trump says very scary things — deporting immigrants, massive militarism and ignoring the climate. Well, Hillary, unfortunately, has a track record for doing all of those things,” she added.
Clinton boasted at a town hall in New Hampshire in November 2015 that, as a senator, she had voted for 2006 legislation that authorized the building of roughly 650 miles of wall on the border.
“I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in,” Clinton bragged. “And I do think you have to control your borders.”
“So we see these draconian things that Donald Trump is talking about, we actually see Hillary Clinton doing,” she added.
“And it’s not only the militarism that Trump talks about, it’s Hillary’s massive record of militarism,” Stein continued.
“We are rushing towards war with Hillary Clinton, who has a track record,” Stein warned.
“Don’t be a victim of this propaganda campaign, which is being waged by people who exercise selective amnesia,” she said. “They’re very quick to tell you about the terrible things that the Republicans did, but they’re very quick to forget the equally terrible things that have happened under a Democratic White House, with two Democratic houses of Congress.”
“We can’t keep using this failed policy of silencing ourselves with this politics of fear. It’s time to forget the lesser evil, stand up and fight for the greater good like our lives depend on it, because they do.”
Democracy Now host Amy Goodman noted that some supporters of Bernie Sanders have adopted the slogan “If it’s Hill, it’s Jill,” meaning that, if Clinton is the Democratic Party’s nominee, they will instead vote for Stein.
The Green Party presidential candidate called on Sanders to continue his presidential run on a third-party ticket.
“The Democratic machine has very steeply tilted the playing field” against Sanders, she noted, citing the DNC’s limiting of debates, the restrictions on exposure to Bernie Sanders, the purging of voters, the huge discrepancies between polls and election outcomes, the unelected elite superdelegate system, the fatalistic and misleading media reporting and more.
“This is what the Democratic Party has done for decades — many decades, in fact,” Stein said. “Over the years, the party has allowed principled candidates to be seen and heard, but has, at the end of the day, sabotaged them in one way or the other, often through fear campaigns and smear campaigns, in the same way that Bernie is being called a spoiler now.”
“This is why we say it’s hard to have a revolutionary campaign inside of a counterrevolutionary party. That’s why we’re here as the Green Party to build a place where a revolutionary movement can truly grow with a political voice.”
“This is why third parties are effective, whether they’re in power or whether they are simply pushing. Otherwise, there is no counterweight of the power of corporations, which have basically taken over the two major corporate political parties,” Stein warned.
Meanwhile, Dr. Stein is actively petitioning Sanders to join her on the Green Party ticket.
I agree Bernie. You and I together could accomplish both. https://t.co/YsEKyJuW7v
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) June 9, 2016
Unfortunately, I don’t think he has the guts to do it. Nevertheless, Jill Stein is a very impressive woman and candidate. I would love to see her poll high enough to get in the debates.
Watch the entire Democracy Now interview here:
For related articles, see:
Chart of the Day – May Registrations for the Libertarian Party Jump 20-Fold
“Bernie or Bust” – Over 50,000 Sanders Supporters Pledge to Never Vote for Hillary
Thoughts on Election Day: Relax—Both Parties Are Going Extinct
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Since 1933, the Democrats have played both the party of war and the party of “stuff”.
Govts should be neither. America has imported poverty since 1965 while Wall Street has done its best to export jobs away from the USA.
I do not reside in the USA nor is English my first language but I can see that the GOP has allowed the Dems to play the party of stuff too many times despite the fact that the GOP has never removed Medicare nor Medicaid, Reagan and then Bush expanded the rolls of both!!.
The immigrants want the stuff. They know they do not even have to ask and they believe that the Republicans will end it.
While Trump has a long list of unpaid bills, Killary has a long list of blood!!
I see Trump as the lesser of two evils. If Killary is elected I pray for the Israelis and Christians in Arab lands
A very important point of Stein’s discourse is that each party (Dems and Reps) have their politics based in the motive of fear. This is quite literally building one’s political (and therefore social, industrial, etc) house on sand. Any significant ‘storm’ (GFC II, global warming, societal breakdown) beating against this house and especially its foundations will spell the doom of a nation whose principles are based upon fear.