Here’s the problem: Trump is out to maximize environmental damage and the US Green Party runs as spoilers. Let’s look at three scenarios:
Scenario 1:
Harris: 1001 votes
Trump: 1000 votes
Stein: 0 votes
Harris wins
Scenario 2:
Harris: 1000 votes
Trump: 1000 votes
Stein: 1 vote
Tied vote, which goes to the courts and Congress, putting Trump in power
Scenario 3:
Harris: 999 votes
Trump: 1000 votes
Stein: 2 votes
Trump wins outright
This spoiler effect makes it really imperative to actively vote for Harris if you want to see any kind of climate action going forward. Republicans know this, which is why they’re the ones funding the Green Party.
And that’s why the European Greens want Jill Stein to step down now — they get that what she’s doing is making it easier to elect a fascist bent on environmental destruction.
The US Green party is fully captured. Their presence in any state-level offices has fully waned under Stein. They have no power to affect change anywhere anymore and exist only to spoil.
I agree and would add that they didn’t really have much power to begin with. If they cared about the environment, they would’ve stepped back for this election on principle of what’s at stake.
The fact that they don’t care who wins means they don’t actually care about the ideals the party is supposed to be about. If you don’t live to fight another day, then you’ve ultimately lost.
Or just run in deep blue districts to challenge sure-thing Democratic moderates who slow walk progressive stuff. You’d think that’d be where their best chances are while also being the places where the impact would be strictly beneficial.
Someone else suggested running in places like Alaska, which has RCV, or focus upon local races. The reason Conservatives are having a moment is because they focused on races they could win.
Green Party, meanwhile, seems content to lose and be a spoiler.
I’m a hard lefty and even I will tell people not to give any votes to Stein. She rubs shoulders with Putin and a bunch of his cabinet members. There was also the time she called for a recount, took a bunch of donations to get the recount going, and then when it inevitably failed, she vanished with the money.
I was going say that maybe Putin has a kompromat on Stein which is why she is buddy with an autocrat, but now that you mentioned she took away with donations, Stein is just a genuinely greedy thief.
Maybe if the Russian Green Party asked, she would
I guess the US Green party got kicked out of the international federation of Greens? Somehow that’s not surprising…
But then, shouldn’t someone make a “New Green Party” that is a member of the federation? And can claim legitimacy as the true Green party with international support? Pointing out that the other Green party in the US lacks recognition and is thus a sham?
And then … this new Green party - could endorse the Dem candidate for President. Most folks who’d follow the greens would probably follow that endorsement…
You could do something like that, and run local and legislative candidates in states like Alaska and Maine which have ranked-choice voting for their general election, or California which uses top-two primaries. Would probably be easier if there was some way to redirect the existing US Green Party towards a path that might actually gain some amount of power, instead of serving as a spoiler.
Where o where is UniversalMonk when you want to shove something in his smarmy, trollish face…?
