US Presidential candidates: The Reality
I support the Green Party. Jill Stein makes an excellent candidate. Here are my top 10 reasons.
- Our environment is all we have. Ecological wisdom is recognizing that we are a part of nature, not apart from nature.
- End the failed and stupid "war on drugs" and the ridiculous incarceration rates in the US. Way too many people are going to prison for petty drug crimes when they should be getting help. That's how you improve a society! Embrace the potential benefits of currently illegal drugs. Understand what can we do to help people who are addicted to the worst of drugs. Tax and regulate: We have to make some money to support these other programs!
- Full and equal rights for minority groups. This is a big one. Very protective of anti-discrimination for LGBT, people of color, and women. We do want a woman for president right?
- Nuanced foreign policy and nuclear policy. They understand the realities of global politics and have lofty aims.
- Similar social policies to Bernie. "The ever-widening gap between rich and poor is destructive of democracy and creates an uneven playing field for economic opportunity." Improve the social safety net, universal healthcare.
- Increases to aid for students (free tuition for qualified students).
- Increased spending on arts and science grants.
- Healthy school meals.
- Massive electoral reforms. Our voting system is insane right now. It's non-representative and un-democratic. For instance they will enact "Instant Run-off Voting": Voters rank candidates in preference order. Eliminates the stupidity of worrying that expressing your preference for your favorite candidate will not inadvertently help their least favored candidate. Like now, we have to vote for Hillary or Donald might just win. Ridiculous.
- I love this one "Develop publicly-owned, open source voting equipment". Like blockchain? yes.
The media and organizations (RNC and DNC) may have misled us into believing that the choice of president of the United States is binary, but they are wrong. If ever there could be a time for third parties to shine through is now.
Trump supporters want a massive change to the established order. Check!
Hillary supporters want a qualified candidate, and liberal policies, and (rightly) despise Trump. Check!
There is only one other 3rd party that could possibly win the election (ballot access in states totaling 270 electoral votes) and that's the Libertarians running Gary Johnston. He is also pretty cool and significantly better than either one of the so-called "choices".
I encourage everyone to look at the issues, look at themselves and their wants for the United States and the planet and actually vote for what they want! Let's not be swayed by the media. Don't let your mind be a prisoner of the establishment, we have a voice and we have a choice. Maybe this is the time, out of all this grisly mess, that we will vote with our mind and heart.
Here's another article about why we should vote third party.
http://www.john-uebersax.com/plato/thirdparty.htm
Jill Stein herself is great, and I agree with her on most things, but I will never vote for her.
Currently in the U.S. no third party, not the Green party and not the Libertarians, has the organization to run viable down ticket campaigns in most districts. At best, they have a token showing in their most idealogically aligned counties. So even if Stein won the presidency, she would not have any presence in Congress under her own party.
So she would have to work with the other parties, the same parties that she just embarrassed on the biggest national stage. Any policy she wanted heard would be dead on arrival. She would be shut out of the legislative process, simply out of spite.
But she would still be president! The last 6 years of Obama's term have been a case study in how ineffective a lone President really is. He made some executive orders and made waves internationally, but his domestic agenda was almost completely stymied. Surely an effective president that you kind of agree with is better than an ineffective one you love?
Then what if she loses? Where is she getting her votes? Few Republicans will be crossing the isle to vote for the Green party, and the platform you outline. Democrats and Liberals pulled from Clinton are all you would get. That is exactly how you get a Trump presidency.
I loved Bernie. I am sad that he lost. The guiding principle of democracy, however, is sometimes the other team wins. It happens. When your first choice is gone, vote for your second. For all the reasons I list above, my second is Hillary Clinton.
Many republicans would be crossing the aisle to vote for libertarians if individuals actually voted for who they wanted to win.
The two party system is the worst thing to ever happen to American democracy. The root cause is in the voting rules: you only vote for one candidate. In Australian elections you have to list all the options in order of preference, it's wonderful. That's the kind of voting the Green Party would enact, the kind of voting that wouldn't benefit Trump.
Yes, perhaps this time Jill isn't going to win but if people actually vote with the party they're most aligned with then they would have a much better showing, turn some heads, and get candidates running at all levels.
I'm sad Bernie lost too. That's a bitch the DNC undercut him. He gave a good speech supporting Hillary, how anyone rational would vote for her at this point and all that.
Voting for anyone but the 2 main candidates is throwing your vote away.
Vote against the person most likely to destroy the country, so you can campaign for and vote third party in 2020.
Your views on HIllary seem a little rosy, have you seen the latest documentary on her treasonous and criminal behavior while acting as Secretary of State?
Clinton Cash Documentary
Hillary will start World War III.
Hillary Clinton Is A Threat To All Of Humanity
If one single scandal in either of those videos is true, the choice is easy.
Absolutely not. Especially if you live in an area that is heavily blue or red voting for a third-party candidate gives you a much louder voice. Because I lived in Arkansas I knew all the electoral votes would go to the republicans (in 2012) I voted for Jill Stein. It's only true that third parties couldn't defeat the lesser of two evils because we believe it to be true. If we have enough people change their minds about that silly belief the reality will be revealed. To be on the ballot third parties need at least a small percentage of votes and to attract third party voters the major parties are likely to adopt policies supported by third parties if they get enough votes.
Donald Trump is clearly more of a threat to humanity! Do you really think he could possibly be a more reasonable choice than Hillary or Jill?
Personally I think she was a great secretary of state.