Top Green Party Candidate Says He'll Run Against Dems--Even If They Nominate Sanders

[octoberlib]

In both 2000 and 2016, the Green Party garnered enough votes in enough swing states that, had those votes gone to the Democrats they would have prevented George W. Bush and Donald Trump from ever assuming the presidency. At the time, Green Party advocates defended their positions by claiming, not without cause, that their voters never would have gone to Democrats anyway, and that the Democrats’ inability to win states like Florida in 2000 or Wisconsin in 2016 was, at the end of the day, their own fault.


The current frontrunner for the ticket, Green Party co-founder Howie Hawkins, remains adamant that he’ll run in as many states as he can in November—a position that puts him squarely at odds with some of the luminaries of American leftism, such as Noam Chomsky.

Two months ago, Chomsky and a raft of other prominent leftist voices penned an open letter criticizing 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein for not doing enough to paint Trump as a unique danger to the U.S., and for siphoning off votes from potential Hillary Clinton supporters in key states in 2016. “We are told, ‘Greens want to get Trump out as much as anybody’ but how can that be if Greens would vote for a Green candidate, and not for Sanders, [Elizabeth] Warren, or any Democrat in a contested state knowing that doing so could mean Trump’s victory?”, the signatories wrote.

As such, Chomsky and the others explicitly called for the Green Party to remove itself from potential swing states in the 2020 election, which could potentially tilt their Electoral College votes to Trump yet again. “Like Stein in 2016, some might claim doing so can’t help Trump win again or, in any case, that Trump’s re-election would not matter all that much. ‘He isn’t that much worse,’” the signatories wrote. “We write in hopes that no one in 2020 will rationalize campaign actions by making such irresponsible and patently false claims.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-green-party-candidate-says-hell-run-against-demseven-if-they-nominate-sanders/


Rick Wilson wrote in his book, Running Against the Devil that he knows GOP consultants who've hired people to run as Green candidates in close races and financed their campaigns.

[ibegurpard]

1. My opinion about the Green Party

they do nothing to build themselves as a party on local levels. Then at election times they field candidates for top tier races but don't bother with local ones where they might actually have an impact. They don't take advantage of the opportunities available in many states to implement ranked choice voting...which would remove voter fears of voting for spoilers.

As such I can never take them seriously. They just don't want to do the work necessary to build any kind of movement.

[octoberlib]

10. One of the leaders of the German Greens said the exact same thing. They consider Jill Stein a fraud,

said her platform was delusional and that they would have voted for Clinton in a 2 party system instead of throwing the election to Trump.

[ibegurpard]

28. I had the very same conversation with the points I just made

with the head of the Green Party in Montana when the Tester campaign sued successfully to keep their Senate candidates off the ballot in 2018 (I'm not sure what the basis for the lawsuit was but they won). I specifically asked her about implementing ranked choice voting. We have a very robust ballot initiative process here in Montana so it's do-able. She said that they would be working on that. Haven't seen a thing about it since.

[greenjar_01]

2. It's simply a Putinite front organization at this point

Why anyone listens to these a-holes, I cannot imagine.

[Siwsan]

3. Bless his heart

[not fooled]

4. Oh, FFS

Who's financing this tool?

Good for Chomsky for pointing out the obvious danger of Green candidates in swing states.

[jimfields33]

7. Some have said that other countries have multiple parties

Do you think we ever will?

[musicblind]

12. There is a chance we someday will, but it won't happen in my lifetime.

And I'm a millennial.

[jimfields33]

24. Yieks That is somber. Lol.

[ibegurpard]

16. Not with current election systems

ranked choice voting will help

[not fooled]

17. I hope so

but now's not the time nor is having this guy siphon off votes from the alternative to red don the way.

[octoberlib]

21. Even in multi party systems the different left, center and right parties have to join together

and form a governing coalition which is what the Dem party basically is , a coalition. It would give voters more choices , though and probably reduce the squabbling.

[we can do it]

5. Who cares?

[totodeinhere]

11. The thing is, in a close election even if the Greens get just !% it could be a factor. n/t

[rockfordfile]

15. true

[LostOne4Ever]

6. These people are political hipsters

The causes they claim to support are nothing more than a fashion statement to them.

They don’t really care about those issues or seeing change happen; and voting for a mainstream political party’s candidate, even if he advocates for everything they claim to support, would ruin the image they want to present.

In short, fuck them.

[musicblind]

13. Exactly. I cannot fathom why they wouldn't vote for Sanders if Sanders were the nominee.

Not voting for Biden would be a dumb and dangerous move, but not voting for Sanders would be dumb, dangerous, AND hypocritical.

[Iliyah]

8. There was a . . .

article not too long ago that stated that Republicans and Green Party are joined at the hip and that when Green party runs it is to mess up the Democratic candidate in that race.

[octoberlib]

14. I'm sure Hawkins will be getting plenty of donations from the GOP and TrumpPacs.

[budkin]

9. I still regret voting for Nader in 2000

Even though it was in Texas where my vote didn't count. I have come to DESPISE the Green Party.

[Cha]

18. They don't give a Shite about our Planet.

[NCProgressive]

19. The Green Party is a fraud and their presidential runs

are just publicity stunts.

If they really wanted policy change, they would run candidates for state and federal legislature where even one or two of them will have the ability to make changes.

[LiberalFighter]

20. There is no Green Party...

not when the arena is only for President.

[ibegurpard]

25. exactly

work to change the election systems in the states where you can, like implementing ranked choice voting, and build a party based upon winning some local elections before you run candidates for top of the ticket races.
Anyone who takes the Green Party seriously is just not paying attention.

[Mersky]

22. Listen to Chomsky, green partiers

I add/dropped out of one economics class when the first day of class a professor shook his head and did a tsk-tsk at me for having a copy of Manufacturing Consent on the top of my pile of books. I recognized his joking admonishment as a sign of unreasonableness to come, and wound up in a much better class (albeit earlier in the day than I wanted).

Has been a push pull of ideals vs. reality over the past twenty years of my life, and I wish the Green Party was better organized and less rigid than it has become. I will struggle for years as to how to get over Jill Stein sitting at the same table with putin, flynn, peskov for R-freakin-T. I’m further from trusting the Green Party than I’d ever imagined possible.

Chomsky is asking you all to think for yourselves. Do not vote lockstep with whatever structure lead to Stein photographed at an RT event in 2015 before her becoming the nominee or that is now telling you in 2020 that a vote for the Green Party isn’t a vote for more tRump damage.

Know when to drop those who are misleading you.

[Downtown Hound]

23. I'm embarrased to admit I ever supported this party

Last edited Thu Mar 5, 2020, 10:09 PM - Edit history (1)

They're way past the point of being pathetic. They literally do not do jack shit except try and spoil the Democrats for Republicans at this point. That's it. They do nothing in between elections except bloviate about how they're so much better than Democrats, and then an election rolls around and they do everything possible to win it for the Republican.


I challenge any Green party voter to list me ONE THING they have accomplished in the last twenty years other than getting Dubya and Trump elected.

[OhNo-Really]

26. Putin puppets

[walkingman]

27. Any voter that votes Green is stupid.

[Laserio]

29. and Bernie's press secretary will vote for Stein

Again.

[rampartc]

30. make them a deal

1. they declare trump a unique danger and support the dem nominee.

2. give them a promise of easier ballot access on future elections, and maybe even a few appointments at epa and interior.

3. if they win any lower offices, they will caucus with dems anyway, and are no more fractious than our own congresscritters.

who knows? it may lead to closer cooperation in the future.

[randr]

31. And the world is so much better

Assholes doing the devils work

[democrattotheend]

32. He'll do worse than usual if Bernie is the nominee

Is he the only one planning to run, or is Stein planning to run again also? I vaguely recall she said in 2016 that she wouldn't run if Bernie was nominated, but I could be mistaken about that.

I never much liked the Greens, but when they ran a candidate in the 2002 Minnesota Senate race they lost any shred of credibility they might have ever had in my book.