Jill Stein enters the presidential 2016 race.

[midnight]

Her platform is to create public banks, free higher education. She was arrested in the last presidential race for showing up at a debate.

She was on the ballot in 37 states.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=43&v=3frcq7BA570

[HERVEPA]

1. In other news, Harold Stassen enters the race.

[midnight]

2. What is his platform?

[Thespian2]

3. K & R

Shoes...

[midnight]

11. Thank you....

[staggerleem]

37. Plywood /nt

[brush]

36. The Green party shows up every presidential cycle . . .

but neglects to build a strong field organization during the other election cycles, fail to run candidates for the lower offices that, if elected, establish their viability as a party, build name recognition for candidates, set those candidates up to run for even higher offices, and so on.

IMO it seems they haven't laid the ground work to become a real force in the several election cycles that they've been around. It takes work as the dems and repugs are not going to just roll over and welcome a third party onto the ballots and into the debates.

It's up to the party to build an organization and get on ballots with legitimate candidates running for local, county, state and ultimately national office and force their way into the ring. It's not easy. Getting on ballots takes hard work, signatures, money and determination to make the deadlines and to work around the roadblocks the established parties will throw up in their way.

So to me it seems naive and egotistical in a tilting-at-windmills sort of way to pop up every four years and want to be included without having done the hard work as a party to not be denied.

This is not the Green party's first rodeo. It's deja vu all over again.

[SheilaT]

4. I heard her on Democracy Now the other day,

and all I could think was: If by some bizarre chance she actually were elected, how in the world would she work with Congress?

[midnight]

7. That is a great question, I'm wondering if she might not get their support via her people

platform focus.

[SheilaT]

15. It's the problem with any and all third party candidates.

If someone already affiliated with either of the two major parties runs as an independent (think John Anderson in 1980) were to win, he or she would just revert to his or her original party designation, and all would be reasonably well.

I am NOT suggesting that anyone in this current cycle do so, although maybe a couple of the Republicans could and totally split that vote.

Another problem with an outsider like Jill Stein is that while she's smart and has well-thought-out positions on many things, she strikes me as rather naive about the actual political process. Better, in my opinion, that she'd joined the Democratic party and got elected to at least one of the many offices she's run for. She clearly has the energy for campaigning, but especially at the presidential level there's not any chance at all she can influence the electorate. If we had a parliamentary system in this country that allowed more than two political parties to be competitive, it would be one thing. But we have the system we have. It's almost impossible to change from the outside.

Even more to the point, Senators and Representatives are very tied up in their party. A few years ago a young man here in New Mexico sought the nomination as a Republican for the House seat in this part of the state, and he honestly thought that he could, if elected, behave independently and not be beholden to his party at all. He was running as a Republican because he felt that in this state the Dems have far too much power and simply did not want to be associated with them. But he had absolutely no understanding of how these things work, especially at the level of getting elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. I think he wound up dropping out before the Primary, and I'm not entirely sure which year it was, either 2010 or 2012. But I'd hear him being interviewed on the radio, and he honestly thought he could call himself a Republican, run for the House, and not be in any way held to behaving as the party would want him to do.

[oldandhappy]

5. Good for her

Greens usually do have a candidate -- I am in CA and there is usually a Green candidate on our ballot. She is on the ballot in 37 states -- hmmm I think that qualifies her for a debate!

[midnight]

10. That is why they had to arrest her...

[rpannier]

25. Debates used to be based on % of the support in polls

Anderson and Perot got invited because they cleared the 10 or 12% margin in the majority of polls

Don't know if that's still how they do it, since it's no longer run by the League of Women Voters

[Geronimoe]

35. Debates use to be held by League of Woman Voter

that was before Democrats & Republicans got rid of them and now control the two party election process. Pure corruption. Jimmy Carter works around to world for free, democratic elections. He does not approve of US process.

Jill Stein did not try to attend to debate. She only tried to attend as a member of the audience. Obama & Romney, supposed candidate to be leader of the "free world" said nothing about Jill Stein being arrested, taken to black site and chained to a chair.

[TexasTowelie]

6. Unfortunately, the Green Party in Texas

is usually stuffed with GOP sponsored candidates in an effort to dilute the Democratic vote.

[midnight]

8. Texas has had it's share of troubles since Gov. Anne Richardson

had her office taken from her by Bush.

[delrem]

27. I hear that they stuff the Democratic Party, too. But for some reason that's OK.

[midnight]

9. If Bernie and Jill were part of the debates they sure would get a lot more interst I think..

[nsd]

12. Jill Stein is not a Democrat.

Why post anything about her here?

Bernie Sanders caucuses with Senate Democrats and is running in the Democratic primary. That makes him Democrat enough.

But Jill Stein belongs to a different party -- a party for which a lot of people at DU have no particular regard. I don't think posts about her or her party belong at DU.

[midnight]

13. Your kidding right.

[nsd]

14. No, I'm not.

It's called Democratic Underground for a reason.

[midnight]

16. Well then go let this post know how you feel too..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026905669

Because there is no way scott walker will be voting or working with any one other than the koch boys.

[nsd]

19. Intent matters ...

... and, if I've misinterpreted your intent, then I apologize.

Since 2000, I've been suspicious of anyone who posts about a Green Party candidate. If a person is posting for informational reasons ("this is what we're up against&quot , then that's useful. But I don't want this site ever to promote the Green Party or its candidates. Jill Stein ran *against* Barack Obama in 2012. Ralph Nader -- well, it's probably better for me not to say anything about that person, I don't want to rehash old arguments.

So, okay, Jill Stein is running for president -- and so is Jeb Bush. I don't want either one of those people.

[RufusTFirefly]

18. So we can't post stories about candidates from other parties entering the race?

That's news to me. I think you're mistaken.
What are you afraid of?

[nsd]

21. Posting is great, posting is useful.

But my concern is that we don't celebrate candidates from other parties.

When Jeb Bush announced recently, I don't think it got responses as positive as a few that have been posted here about Stein ("Good for her", "She makes some very valid points&quot . That's what I was reacting to.

I'm not a Green. I didn't like Stein in 2012 when she ran *against* Barack Obama, and it's probably better for all concerned that I not say what I really think of Ralph Nader.

My point is simply that this isn't the not-Republican Underground or even the Progressive Underground. I want Stein to lose (almost) as much as I want Bush to lose.

[delrem]

22. Oh FFS, take some smelling salts or something.

What are you so afraid of?

[nsd]

24. Not afraid of anything, just annoyed.

Really, I'm just annoyed by people who claimed that there was no difference between Obama and Romney (or Kerry and Bush, or Gore and Bush). I am annoyed by these people -- and I don't want to pretend that I respect their opinions. I do not. And I really hope they are not on this site.

[delrem]

26. WTF has that to do with Jill Stein?

Nothing.

eta: to say nothing of the fact that no person compos mentis would ever suggest that there was no difference between Bernie Sanders and e.g. Jeb Bush, or Hillary Clinton. Isn't it the job of any politician to differentiate themselves - rather than expect the field to be reduced to politicians identical to them?

[nsd]

28. Huh?

Jill Stein was the Green Party candidate in 2012. She ran against Barack Obama. For example, listen to what she had to say then about the present administration:

#t=268

You may agree with her, but she is not a Democrat.

[delrem]

30. So?

Of course she's not running in the Dem primary, or as a Dem!
To say that is the purpose of her announcement.

Partisan politics is to be expected and encouraged at a partisan forum.
But fear of thought, of different opinions than one's own, isn't.

I haven't seen any of Bernie's supporters freak out about this announcement... yet.
I haven't seen any of them demanding loyalty oaths.

Loyalty oaths seem to be characteristic of only one faction at DU.

I think that's because Bernie's supporters are ... quite a lot more confident ... than those others.

[nsd]

31. Exactly!

She's not a Democrat. That's the whole point!

DU is supposed to be about advancing Democratic candidates. Those candidates span the spectrum from Clinton to Sanders. A healthy spectrum. We don't need to be promoting non-Democratic fringe characters like Stein.

That's my issue. When people say stuff like "She makes some very valid points", that get's my goat. Forget her, forget the Greens, we have enough diversity in a party with Clinton and Sanders already.

[staggerleem]

38. Because nobody EVER talks about Republicans here?

There's a new candidate in the Presidential race. That, to one extent or another, is what we call "NEWSWORTHY". Aside from being a Democratic site, it's also a NEWS and opinion site, isn't it?

If not, I never want to see another post here whose title starts with the word BREAKING, because that applies to NEWS.

[Sherman A1]

33. Well,

perhaps because it is news and serves to inform those who might find it of interest and may not have heard about it. Should we not post about economics, science, art, sports, the environment, etc because they are not running in a Democratic Primary?

[MattSh]

34. Trump, Christie, hell, the whole clown car are not Democrats...

To paraphrase you:

But (the clown car candidates) belongs to a different party -- a party for which a lot of people at DU have no particular regard. I don't think posts about (them) or (their) party belong at DU.

And they get posted all the time...

[think]

17. She makes some very valid points

And 37 states. There's some clout.

Be nice to see what the Greens can do in the House & Senate as well as her run....

[midnight]

20. Folks I've got to get to bed... I've got a huge weekend planned and much work to do... Everyone have

have a good night, and let's keep moving our speaking points to the left....

[delrem]

23. Heh, there are plenty of people posting to DU who are "to the right" of Hillary,

the "moderate" candidate. Why should they be excluded. They are part of the mix.

[nsd]

29. Are you just trolling?

Earlier in this thread, you objected to my criticism of Jill Stein and other Greens. But here, you're standing up for "moderate" Democrats?! What's your deal? Troll or something else?

[delrem]

32. Lie. You didn't "criticize Jill Stein and other Greens".

You publicly declared that:
"Jill Stein is not a Democrat.
Why post anything about her here?"
Challenging the right of anyone to post anything about her at DU.

OK?

Likewise, there's *nothing* in my post that you're responding to that would suggest, in any way or form, that I'm somehow "standing up for "moderate" Democrats", whatever that could possibly mean. Like, now you think I'm not allowed to do even that?????

My post was, in my world, a gentle dig in favor of free speach,
A dig that I assume that midnight, if not you, gets.

[Jim Lane]

39. The Green Party candidate will probably finish fourth again.

In 2012, in the all-unimportant race for third place, the Greens got clobbered by the Libertarians by better than two to one.

I used to deride the Greens as the Getting Republicans Elected Every November party. Fortunately, that description is now out of date. The Greens attract so few votes that they're completely irrelevant in Presidential races and in almost all downticket races.