In the August edition of my monthly blog, HERE, I asked that voters consider a way to “Stop Trump, and pressure for what you do want!” In response, I received a lot of strong opinions and I’m grateful that most opinions were expressed with civility!
Take a look at the REFERENCES at the end, with some very informative articles as well as entertaining and challenging videos.
Other contents are the following:
- Electoral College – “Unsafe in Any State” (playing on Nader’s 1965 book title “Unsafe at Any Speed”)
- LANDSLIDE and PUSH NOW! — Checking the Polls and applying PRESSURE
- What We Want
- Why should Greens run for President?
- Campaigns that don’t Strengthen Our Organizing
- REFERENCES
Electoral College — “Unsafe in Any State”
NOTE: My initial “Stop Trump, and pressure for what you do want!” blog sent in August was kept as short as possible. I added these paragraphs when I posted it on my website HERE.
ARE YOU AFRAID OF TRUMP WINNING?
Check the polls for your state — PPIC, Gallup, newspapers, etc. If one or the other of the Titanic Party candidates is ahead by 15-20%, vote Green! For example, 4 years ago in Maryland the margin was over 25%, and in California the margin was over 30%. In his book about the 2000 election, Crashing the Party, even Nader mentioned the usefulness of this approach.
After you check polls, mark your ballot, and mail it on Monday, October 26 to be sure it’s postmarked a week ahead of the November 3rd election; then it will be counted even if mail is slow.
ARE YOU VOTING YOUR VALUES NO MATTER WHAT?
Vote Green, and don’t let anyone perpetuate the false story that your vote is wasted, or that it is a vote for the opposition! There’s a good piece on why that story is a propaganda myth used since 2000 to scare voters away from alternative-party candidates, HERE.
I. CALIFORNIA: Are you advocating a safe state strategy and is this the position of GPUSA?
II. CALIFORNIA: We should be pushing to vote Green in all states not pushing the “safe state strategy vote” BS.
III. CALIFORNIA: The safe state strategy doesn’t interest me. It admits defeat at the outset. Which keeps Greens at sub 5%. [After my reply:] Agreeing with those millions of people isn’t going to get it done: removing the duopoly. It will collapse internally at some point. Just don’t know what day.
IV. MASSACHUSETTS: I think it is gross that you are supporting Biden and telling people to vote for him.
— This is definitely NOT the position of GP-US.
When we look at the facts, many of us don’t buy the “a vote for the Green is a vote for [Bush][Trump][etc.]”, but millions of people do.
I believe that if we do NOT encourage Californians to vote Green, then there’s no way we can even approach 2% or 5%. People will automatically fall in line and not even consider “wasting their vote” to vote for a candidate who “can’t win.”
My hope in publishing this blog is that some people will realize they have more choice than they think, and they will vote Green. I do not think this blog will convince anyone NOT to vote Green.
[NOTE: This Michigan post was from a related Facebook post.]
MICHIGAN: I think just because you have been a hard core Democrat all these years you need to step back and take another look at what this party has done over the last years and reconsider what you may be looking at in the future. I was a Democrat for a lot of years but would never vote for this do nothing party again!!
LW (born and raised in Michigan): I’m not a Democrat, though lots of my Facebook friends are lined up with one or the other of the two big political parties. I’ve been with the Green Party since 1992, because it takes NO CORPORATE MONEY and so it is not on the side of the billionaires. We need politics on the side of regular people, for justice, peace, the environment and a real democracy. Neither the Democratic nor Republican leadership is on our side, plain and simple. That’s why the 2 parties do what they do and why inequality of wealth and power has kept growing. We can choose to vote differently.
MICHIGAN: Good to hear, but I feel that voting against the two majors can’t put a dent in the outcome of the election. I feel that I have to choose and from what I have seen from the Democratic party in the last three years, I will have to vote again for Mr. Trump. I am an American Veteran and the positive changes that have been made in the VA during his term have helped me a lot. He has been able to move forward in a lot of areas without any support from the Democrats. Good to hear from you and I wish you well.
LW: The ugly Electoral College is rearing its head in this Facebook thread. Neither party establishment wants to change the E.C. game, any more than they want voters to think There Are Alternatives. But, There Are Solutions, in which veterans, like my brother in Florida, and non-veterans like me in California, and everyone else too, could live better. Better healthcare, education, housing, environment, the list goes on.
NEW YORK & FLORIDA: I forwarded this to a friend of mine in NYC. She is simpatico with your beliefs and might do what you suggest. For me in Florida, it will be too risky not to vote for Biden. If I knew that Biden was pretty much a sure thing in Florida, then I would do what you suggest.
— Thanks for passing this along to your friend. In NY as in CA, our Green votes will count a lot more in opposition to Trump’s policies than a Biden vote.
NOTE: Electoral College effect on Florida and the world: Trump ramps up Obama’s economic sanctions against Venezuela, installs a fake president, and all of Washington goes along. Why? Because wealthy Venezuelan emigres team up with Cubans to form a tiny but significant constituency in an important “swing state.” Meanwhile, in all the negative media, no reports of countries being attacked by “scary” Venezuela. US media falsely accuses Venezuela of bad elections; meanwhile popular-vote losers like Trump and Bush take the US presidency, and Reps and Dems can ignore CA and NY and other states, except for fundraising. The hypocrisy is extreme. Bad elections???
CALIFORNIA: Thank you for remembering me! I certainly will consider what you presented!
— Thank you for considering that — checking the polls and voting Green if there’s a big difference.
CALIFORNIA: I will vote Green! Promise!
— Great! Our government needs all the pressure we can muster.
CALIFORNIA: Thank you for your thoughts. I will be voting Green no matter what. I cannot vote for Biden.
— I’m continually revising the Stop Trump piece, and a recent version uses your phrase “no matter what.”
OHIO: Good strategy & hope people will follow!!
Living in a state where is up for grabs, must vote BIDEN!
Please help people to do that!!
Desperate times!
— Good luck in Ohio! I’ll never forget when in 2004 there was ample reason to question Ohio’s results, and yet Kerry conceded the next morning anyway. In 2000, at least Gore took a few weeks before giving up what would have been his WIN in Florida, and going along with the Supreme Court’s “election” of Bush. Regarding Ohio, check out especially the “Practical Impediments” and “Recounts” sections in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_election_voting_controversies.
The two-party establishment spends a lot of time maintaining the status quo and blaming independent parties like the Greens. I wish they would use that time to update our Democracy 101! Implement Ranked Choice Voting, and also Proportional Representation, which more than 90 countries have, while in the U.S. we barely know what it is, and please abolish the Electoral College or get around it, https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/.
FLORIDA: I support Trump in any way I can. Like most Californians, a check-up for the neck-up would be timely. Trump will win, and you will be better off. Is it clear to you where I stand?
— Yes, it’s clear where you stand.
You and my brother apparently agree politically. It always amazed me how he and I have such similar values and yet “seemingly opposite” politics, although I do not fit in the two-party system as I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. To me, “similar values but different politics” shows how bad our political system is at supporting the values and policies we want and need for ourselves and others.
CALIFORNIA: I have sent $$ to Biden and will be definitely doing mail In voting in November.
— If you want your vote to go for Biden, then as long as you vote in CA, it will!
No matter what presidential candidate I’ve voted for since I’ve been a Green, my vote in CA has gone to the Democratic candidate. So you can donate to Biden and help his vote count in other states, and meanwhile vote Green in California in order to pressure for peace, justice, ecology, real democracy and no-corporate-money politics.
CALIFORNIA: Laura, realistically how will The Green Party accomplish anything if they don’t have any representatives in the Senate or Congress?
— I would ask, how can people realistically expect two huge political parties that are bought by billionaires and their corporations to:
* provide healthcare that’s not the most expensive in the world with mediocre results?
* bring peace when our military and government policies make us aggressors in violation of United Nations agreements?
* make decisions in favor of the environment not the oil companies?
* support economic success for middle and low-income classes rather than the billionaire class?
That sense of reality is why many of us stay the course with the no-corporate-money Green Party and Green values.
Other countries get legislators from multiple parties because they have different electoral systems. More than 90 countries have some form of proportional representation (PR) in their legislatures while many in the U.S. do not know what PR is! Greens have been working for electoral reform, and have run for and won local races.
It’s the system, and it needs to change so that voters can vote FOR candidates they agree with, not just AGAINST those they oppose.
LANDSLIDE and PUSH NOW!
Checking the Polls and applying PRESSURE
COMMENT: I plan on sending my ballot in as early as possible so doing what you say is not so smart for us early voters.
— The post office held a zoom call with political parties and said their super-sure advice was to get your ballot postmarked a week in advance. With that advice you could mark your calendar for Monday, October 26, check the polls to see how wide the Biden-Trump spread is, mark your choice, and then mail in your ballot. That provides a chance to make your vote count the most toward what you want in the world!
COMMENT: This email helps give people a sense of security in voting Green and not giving into the Democratic scare tactics!
— Yes, the Democratic Party has gone from campaigning on FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s, to “anybody-but-Trump” or whoever in recent decades, to this year’s “Settle for Biden”(!)
COMMENT I: I’m sending you Strong “NO’s” from my organizations. I can well understand the response. We really do have to have an overwhelming show of numbers to make sure we get the smooth transition we are praying for this November.
COMMENT II: Although the Green Party issues are all ones I agree with, I feel this is not the year to vote Green. We have a maniac/dictator in the White House whose cohorts will do anything and everything illegal to get him re-elected. The Democrats need a landslide victory, not just a simple win. They need every single vote, including yours. Even if it doesn’t change the electoral vote, massive numbers in the popular vote are important.
COMMENT III: As much as I appreciate your great work and am totally on board with our progressive agenda, I REALLY disagree with this message.
Unlike past elections, we’re up against a fascist who has shown exactly what he’s capable of doing, with a base that threatens POC and immigrants and anyone who stands up for them. If the popular vote is even slightly close, he AND HIS BASE will refuse to admit defeat, even if they lose in the Electoral College.
Encouraging people to play the Electoral College game and vote Green in a clear Red or Blue state is wrong-headed IMO. It means the POPULAR vote against Trump will be dispersed and if he loses by a small margin in the Electoral College and refuses to accept the election (SO possible!) there won’t be a strong popular vote for Biden that will force him out.
All of us progressives who may have voted Green in years past and want a change in the Dem Party and Biden/Harris on their imperialist foreign policy need to recognize that we can’t jeopardize the popular vote for this presidential election.
Down ballot elections are different. And those of us who are focussed on US foreign policy need to be putting our energies into pressuring the Dem Party for sure on their platform and policy direction (my partner has actually had some slight success with that with respect to Israel/Palestine) but as long as we don’t have ranked choice voting, we can’t cast a Green vote for president when we’re up against a truly fascist threat.
— Yes, let’s oppose Trump as strongly as we can! Here’s what I hope for, and what I’m afraid of.
(1) I hope for a landslide against Trump! Especially in California. The landslide will include all votes for anybody but Trump, ESPECIALLY votes for the candidates who take NO corporate money, cannot be bought by billionaires, and whose platforms are OPPOSED to Trump’s policies. Our votes for the Green candidate (or Peace and Freedom) support key things like healthcare for everyone and a real Green New Deal, which Green candidate Howie Hawkins campaigned on ten years ago. If you’re nervous about Biden losing California, check the polls and if California is polling as Biden over Trump by 15-20%, consider strengthening the landslide by voting Green, against the billionaires and for what California wants and needs.
(2) Here’s what I’m afraid of: If Biden — who will win California in any case — gets a landslide of CA votes, the Democratic Party establishment leaders will see it as a great big sign saying, “Keep on ignoring California!” Only 28% of Democratic voters chose Biden in the California primary in March, whereas Sanders got 36%, and Warren 13%. The Democratic leaders will have good reason to believe that no matter what candidate they put up, people will go along, and they’ll keep the Democratic Party moving toward Wall Street, oil companies and fracking, more conservatives speaking at Democratic conventions and filling cabinet posts, increased military budgets and foreign interventions, and no Medicare for All. (Biden said he would veto Medicare for All, even though 80% of Democrats support it!)
Bottom line, let’s do a landslide victory including Green votes to assert powerfully, “DO NOT IGNORE CALIFORNIA’S HOPES FOR THE FUTURE!”
COMMENT: If everyone acquiesces and unnecessarily casts a vote for Biden, then the Democratic Party will continue to drift toward the billionaires and corporations that fund their campaigns, and the Republican Party will get even worse, as they have during a decades-long process.
I certainly wish your blog convinced people that it is an honor and an intelligent choice to discard the invisible yoke around their necks and vote for “alternative” party candidates who DO represent change for the better for the overwhelming majority in establishing a more humane egalitarian system of governance.
What We Want
Simply, a Better World
COMMENT: I vote Green Party always.
Thank you for your Green Party work!
— It’s such a simple thing we’re asking for: candidates who do not take corporate and billionaire money, and who will stand for the things most of us really want, like great healthcare, justice, education, housing, environment, peace, democracy. I just want a better world that we all know is possible! A world in which we move toward constructive – meaningful, creative, and even fun – ways of living rather than destructive.
Electoral Reform
COMMENT: Will do, and have done since we started the Green Party in California, around 1990. I’m also on Howie Hawkin’s and Angela Walker’s list and reasonably active locally.
It’s time for me to write another epistle to Ro Khanna, urging him to put forward all sorts of electoral reforms if the Dems regain all 3 branches of government to “keep the Republicans from taking over yet again”, as I’ll put it to him, but also of course, to begin to advance our party.
— Thank you for continuing to write to Ro Khanna; he is one of the representatives with the most integrity in Congress. Yes, we need to update our Democracy 101. It was like a beta test, and it needs improvement!
End the Two-Party System
COMMENT: I want to stop Trump and also the DNC capitalist imperialist class. I don’t think the Green Party is the primary way to doing that .The Green Party is an ally at best. At worst it has no strategy outside of the electoral process within the capitalist imperialist system. We need to build a general strike for Medicare for All and End the Wars .The Multiracial Rebellion of Millions is a good first step.
— We totally need street power – along with wallet power going to small businesses not big corporations. As you say, voting Green is not the primary way. A lot of Greens are in the streets and also using organizing power outside of the Green Party.
I’m saying let’s use EVERY BIT OF POWER we have toward the world we want, including electoral power. The Greens take NO corporate money, cannot be bought by billionaires, and are totally OPPOSED to the policies of the two-party system. Our votes for the Green candidate (or Peace and Freedom) support key things like improved Medicare for All and a real Green New Deal, which Green presidential candidate Howie Hawkins campaigned on ten years ago. The Greens and Peace and Freedom are definitely part of that Multiracial Rebellion of Millions we’re working to build.
In short, I hope you do vote, and encourage others to vote, Green or Peace and Freedom in November.
Green New Deal
QUESTION: Are those not the essential tenets of the Green New Deal, sponsored by the Democrat, AOC?
— Regarding the Green New Deal, the problem is that the Democratic platform does NOT support it. This interview of why U.S. Representative Ro Khanna voted NO on the platform this year is worth the 7 minutes, HERE. To summarize:
* Medicare for All has still not returned to the Democratic platform, even during a pandemic where lost jobs = lost healthcare, and Biden has said he would veto M4A if it came to his desk.
* The policy to end fossil fuel subsidies was REMOVED, in the face of climate catastrophe.
AOC’s Green New Deal was not supported by Pelosi and the Democratic establishment, even though what AOC proposed was a watered-down version of the strong Green New Deal that’s needed, and was initially proposed by Howie Hawkins in a campaign 10 years ago. AOC did not address U.S. military as an environmentally destructive force, and waste in the military budget as a potential source of revenue.
Why should Greens run for President?
COMMENT: Hasn’t the Green Party learned that you gave the Presidency to Trump in 2016 by voting for Jill Stein in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania? And apparently you didn’t learn in 2000 when a 3rd Party vote for Nader in Florida cost Gore the presidency — allowing the Iraq war and other abuses to occur in the Bush administration.
Voting for a Green candidate who has zero chance of winning will help Trump win again. Or maybe that’s the plan after all???
No Green.
— Here is a piece that does a good job of explaining how “spoiler” has been used to frighten voters away from alternative-party candidates ever since 2000, HERE.
COMMENT: Jill Stein said the Green Party had to run a presidential candidate, so they could run a down ballot candidate. Is this true? Some people criticize the Green Party thinking they are lax in not building up a base of down ballot candidates before running a presidential candidate. Never mind that Green Party candidates are up against a barrier of campaign cash whatever race they choose.
What is often not recognized is that Green Party presidential candidates change the political conversation of what is possible.
— Yes, the Green Party runs presidential candidates because if we didn’t, the party would die, like so many other independent party attempts. The presidential campaign helps activate state Green Parties by organizing for ballot access, and spreads the word about solutions like the real Green New Deal, public banking, improved Medicare for All, and reducing the military budget and foreign interventions.
The Democratic Party establishment has been trying to kill off the Green Party for decades, and the fact that it has still survived and elected people around the country is a victory in itself. Being national and international helps. Although it’s been a challenge not to have a single “leader” I’ve started to see that as one of the Green Party’s secrets to sustainability.
But mostly, we’ve survived because the Green Party has what this country needs: the combined values of peace, justice, ecology and real democracy and the commitment to take no corporate money. Because of that, we won’t quit!
THE 2% – 5% BENEFIT OF VOTING GREEN. If Greens achieve 2% of the CA vote for a state or federal race, the Green Party of California retains ballot access for another two years. If the Green presidential ticket gets 5% of the national popular vote, the Green Party of the U.S. qualifies for millions in matching funds through a public campaign financing grant for the 2024 presidential election cycle. That will be a real boost toward breaking up the two-party stranglehold and creating a truly progressive political party in the United States.
Campaigns that don’t Strengthen Our Organizing
COMMENT: I can’t vote Green this year, I’ll be writing in Jesse Ventura.
The main difference between Biden and Trump is the time it will take for the Earth to become a heat sink.
Otherwise Biden is a sure thing in CA and almost as bad a choice as Trump.
— My wish is that you would use your California presidential vote to
* oppose Biden and Trump,
* AND oppose the two-party system,
* AND support the strength and growth of the Green Party and green values.
Rather than being spearheaded by an individual, the Green Party is an organized effort with a base of many leaders. Although it’s a challenge not to have a single “leader” I’ve started to realize it’s one of the Green Party’s secrets to sustainability. The establishment has been trying to kill the Green Party since it began, and yet the leaderless (or as a friend says, “leader-full”) party has survived where many other independent political party attempts have died off.
In short, I wish you would write a fan letter to Jesse Ventura and cast your vote for Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker!
REFERENCES
Stop Trump, and pressure for what you do want!
Here is my August post that prompted these comments and interactions.
https://laurawells.org/stop-trump-and-pressure-for-what-you-do-want/
By Laura Wells, August 2020
Greens: Don’t Fault Us
A good piece on how “spoiler” has been used as a propaganda myth to scare voters away from alternative-party candidates since 2000:
http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/new/op-ed/greens-dont-fault-us
By Scott McLarty – May 25, 2016
(Congressperson) Ro Khanna Votes No To Biden’s Platform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwJyTlxQQNE (8 min video))
The Damage Report, with John Iadarola of The Young Turks – August 22, 2020
The Democratic Convention, described by Lee Camp
https://www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight-summary/498668-hypocrisy-at-drc-convention/ (28 min video)
Lee Camp, political comedian, Redacted Tonight – August 22, 2020
Electoral Reforms that the Democratic Party establishment could spend time implementing rather than kicking alternative candidates off the ballot: Ranked Choice Voting, Proportional Representation, and stopping the Electoral College madness.
https://www.fairvote.org/rcv#where_is_ranked_choice_voting_used
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
THOUGHT-PROVOKING VIDEOS that people have sent me recently
Not necessarily easy to hear, so you might need to take a deep breath!
Barack Obama Pushed LeBron James Away From Pivotal NBA Boycott
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi-APiwKC3A (11 min video)
By Tim Black – September 6, 2020 — on how Obama is more dangerous right now for black people than Trump
Green Party HIT PIECE by the New York Times!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBUXTMJSelw&feature=youtu.be (9 min)
By Jimmy Dore, political comedian – September 25, 2020
What OBAMA Got Away With
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOfkBRaWmGE (13 min)
By Jimmy Dore, political comedian – September 26, 2020
Edward Snowden – Joe Rogan Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rl82OQDoOc (2 hr, 29 min)
Joe Rogan Experience, September 15, 2020
THIS LAST REFERENCE is a heartening interview of whistleblower Ed Snowden, interviewed after the NSA program that Snowden exposed was declared illegal. Even though it’s 2.5 hours long, there are 6 million views and counting.