I just listened to Dr Jill Stein on Mark Thompson’s program, “Make it Plain” for Tuesday July 5. I like Dr Stein. I believe in the platform of the Green Party. Here is my concern: if Teddy Roosevelt could not win as a third party candidate in the middle of a monumental era for the Progressive Movement, I do not know how Dr Stein can win in 2016. I am hoping others will contribute more historical info on the TR race and the dynamics of that time because my knowledge is not very deep.
I heard Stein say that we should not vote for a candidate that will clearly do less harm but then maintain the status quo. I heard Stein say that if a candidate will not commit to aggressively moving forward to fix our economy and environment, then they are not worth voting for. Stein stated that it is worth it to lose an election or two in order to build the movement.
I also heard Stein say that she has tremendous energy and support coming from former Bernie campaign supporters.
I believe that we are stuck with a two party system for now and that we need to support the Democratic candidate in November. Think of Trump Supreme Court nominees in comparison to Hillary nominees.
However, I believe we must not stop our work/support with the November election like many of us have done in the past because of our frantically busy lives (mine included); now we must also continue to put pressure--and I mean ENORMOUS pressure--on the Democratic party to move the Democratic party’s mission/platform back to the roots of the New Deal and beyond (fixing the negatives of the New Deal era to eliminate racial bias). We need to occupy the Democratic Party and continuously organize to vote for the greenest, most progressive candidates. We need Bernie/Stein supporters to become Democratic Precinct Committee people, work to join school boards, library boards and find other ways to spread progressive influence everywhere. We need to pressure and shift the Democratic Party left just like the Tea Party has effectively moved the Republicans to the right—only of course pressuring the Democratic Party with intelligent people-oriented demands such as the ones Bernie and Stein are raising. The movement Bernie has launched must grow and—this time—continue in perpetuity as a watch dog to hold back the Wall Street wolves--wolves that will always be waiting—always waiting for those moments when we think all is done and when we think we can comfortably go back to enjoying our domestic priorities/lives.
I am excited to see Bernie’s commitment to make his voice heard at the Democratic convention. I love his contribution to the platform committee. I am still listening and supporting Bernie’s current efforts. I was happy with Bernie’s careful remarks that he would vote Democratic in November but that there were still issues he wanted to push to the convention and that there were still differences between him and Hillary to be resolved. I am glad Bernie stopped short of “endorsing” Hillary at this time.
On another note: Let’s not forget all the vote tampering that has already occurred during this election’s primaries—worse than I remember. Bernie mysteriously lost votes many times. Even if Hillary was way ahead of Trump in the polls—which she is not, I am afraid this election still has a good chance of being stolen. If young voters are enticed away by a third party ….I think we have no hope for Hillary.
Right now I am afraid that a vote for Dr Stein will be a vote for Trump.
I hope the newly enthusiastic activists and voters brought to the table by Bernie will keep the pressure on, vote in November, and never give up. Remember, many important leaders of the various suffrage, civil rights, progressive, union, and LGBT movements (to name a few) did not see the full results of their efforts before they died. Nevertheless, that did not stop their commitment and work towards their respective causes. The monumental changes that we talk about all the time did not happen over one presidential election—not even with FDR. If the unions and the progressives and other socialist groups had not been organizing and pushing for decades, I believe FDR could not have made such an enormous project like the New Deal even happen.
I am hoping this diary will give me—as well as the KOS community—some important information/questions/strategy to move forward with: to the Democratic convention—to the November election—to building a Democratic Socialist movement.