Jill Stein – 2012 Green Party Presidential Candidate
2012 Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein sat down for an interview with me at the Democracy Convention in Madison Wisconsin on January 9th, 2013. Ms. Stein participated in various panels where she gave compelling arguments for a national social movement.
When asked to describe herself, Jill Stein said that she is a mother and a medical doctor. She said that after having children she realized that the country was moving in the wrong direction for most including young people, people of color, and others.
Ms. Stein was ready for the most important questions she likely hears ad nauseum. Is a third party, specifically a real progressive Green Party, a recipe for the ultimate defeat of progressive ideas or governance given the dilution that occurs when a third party runs against Democrats? Her answer was poignantly on point. Her answer paraphrased is that fear of evil in effect forces the election of just the lesser evil which ultimately does not fulfill the needs of the American communities.
She asks how much has changed within the American foreign policy, domestic policy, and the corporatocracy’s access to politicians or power. She asserts that under a president as repressive as Nixon, the EPA came into existence; a war came to an end, the Clean Water Act came into existence, Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, among many other successes. Stein said a strong social movement was responsible for said progress.
Ms. Stein makes the point that whether Democrats or Republicans are in power; corporations continue to get the ear of the politicians. Her contention is that a third party is usually the method to get real change from the status quo. She uses the example of the Republican Party having been a third party, an abolitionist party.
Ms. Stein touched on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a draconian takeover of American sovereignty over commerce, workers’ rights, and the rights of the USA. In effect this treaty will continue to commoditize the American worker.
Ms. Stein makes a compelling and historically sound argument. Sometimes however history does not repeat itself. Given the that the American structure has continuously been fortified as a two party system I am not yet convinced that third parties as oppose to the usurping of one of the existing parties is more efficient. Absent a revolution it seems like a successful massive education campaign of the citizenry would be required. The question is whether there is time before the complete conversion of the poor and middle class to indentured servitude is complete.
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