Fine. I’ll Vote.
In 2008 I canvased for the Democratic Party. By comparison, this electoral year I’ve been little less than present. This is due, partially, to my geography. I was following the French elections intensely for the weeks proceeding Hollande’s inauguration, which left little time to check NYtimes.com on a daily basis for the latest on the Romney vs. Obama front.
Yet the French elections have been decided for over a month now. Where am I? In truth: disenchanted. A jaded lover. Obama seduced me marvelously the first go-around, and I still remember his talking points as admirable ambitions. Unfortunately, what he said and what he’s done with my vote… c’est pas pareil. He’s proven himself malleable in the hands of les grands entreprises, fondant, easily dispersed and rendered ineffective. (Please, people, our power lies in concentration. Not in appeasement.) I’d the uncomfortable sense of betrayal, especially regarding environmental and energy policies. (Uncanny similarities in Obama’s and Cheney’s energy independence strategies are detailed here.) Given my other option, I seriously considered ignoring the elections completely this year and reveling in my ex-pat status.
Fortunately, cette petite idée wasn’t on the table long. Are my options only, really, Romney or President Obama?
The truth of the matter is, yes, in a way, if I’m to take without question, major media coverage. Here’s an unfortunate connection: those candidates granted press time are not there for free. By what magic a particular candidate finds the public’s eye can be best visualized as a trick in Mr. Monopoly’s top hat. (From my brief stint in a journalism program, I learned that major media is actually quite claustrophobic. Concentrated. With Midas money.)
The golden gods do not like Jill Stein. Who is this? Someone running for president? Why yes, and here’s something else: she has my vote. Dear reader, if you’ve been with me for awhile, you might remember my post circa summer of 2008 when I listed why I was voting for Obama. A major component of this list was headed, “I Dream in Solar Panels.” Environmentally conscious energy remains a major issue for me, as we are living, after all, in an era of unprecedented consumption. (For some visualizations of this consumption, I encourage you look at Chris Jordan’s photography and This Is Not Sustainable.) Energy is not only high in demand, the vast majority is toxic. Jill Stein, who is a physician as well, points out that cleaner energy models are not only an economic necessity, but has direct implications upon public health.
It’s imperative we understand that humanity cannot expect healthy, fruitful lives on a crippled land. We are of this world. Furthermore, the same cost-reducing incentives that have companies fracking have them growing wheat and cows in a juicy chemical smorgasbord. There has been little to no chemical oversight (as most are protected as “patents” and “intellectual property”) and the public has more or less let this slide since the reincarnation of agent orange as a pesticide since poison never looks very threatening. For all we know of this Iocane voodoo, we do know that it’s odorless and tasteless. (Yes. Please cue Battle of Wits from Princess Bride ’80s babies.)
I’m over it. I’m over this violence. So I went looking up one of the few political parties that takes our environment seriously: The Green Party. I’m lifting the following from Stein’s People’s State of the Union:
What we usually call “the environment” is really another word for Mother Nature’s economy. A business model that destroys our forests, our fisheries, our topsoil, our water supplies, our health, and our climate – is a business model that will inevitably collapse upon itself. And an economy that is addicted to ever-increasing supplies of oil is not only doomed, it is a national security disaster just waiting to happen.
The Green Party is inevitably bound and tied to greener environment = healthier economy, and is it ever. The future lies in renewables. The countries most able to realize this with be the most puissant. This sector has the potential to create entirely new markets, with jobs that demand less physical peril and more intellectual effort.
Additionally, Stein is willing to give local contingents the ability to act as best suits what faces the immediate community. The key here is that she would like to decentralize. Being a localist myself (and this is something that I adore about France: their pride in the immediate community) I’m excited to see a candidate who doesn’t pretend that Washington can possibly oversee the success of each and every city in the union. (On New-Deal-esque job creation):
Full Employment Program will create 16 million jobs through a community-based direct employment initiative that will be nationally funded, locally controlled, and democratically protected against conflicts of interest…This program will not be run from Washington D.C.. Our job in Washington will be limited to insuring that you have a say in how this program runs. Local communities will be responsible for putting this jobs program into practice through a process of broad community input and democratic decision…
A local focus not only reconnects us, as citizens, to our community, it gives us more economic freedom. I won’t get on my don’t-shop-at-Walmart soapbox here, but this initiative follows similar logic: if money rests with the community, that community has a future. Raise your hand if you want a future.
(Fighting temptation to make a pun about Dr. Stein healing what ails you. Just opened a bottle of wine.)
Salut. Here’s to you… and to breaking up the famously undemocratic two-party system.
by YourLocalSecurity.com
What a wonderful post! I will reblog it on my website, Jillmania.com, if you give permission. C’est magnifique! (BTW I also love the Dylan reference in the title of your blog.)
Re-post away! Jill has all of my PR blessings. As does Bob Dylan… whose music always wraps me up in grandfather’s blanket.
I just reposted this post. Sorry for the delay.
http://jillmania.com/2012/08/03/fine-ill-vote/
Thanks for your enlightened post. Dr Jill Stein has my vote, even with heightened risk (some say) caused by Ryan joining Romney ticket. Ryan in my assessment is not really any worse risk than Obama, just as you say about Cheney. Stein the best quality candidate I’ve seen in many decades and can win, as she herself points out, “given new levels of desperation and potentially new levels of voter participation.” Question is not whether she can be elected — can we be elected and can WE elect her? My fiercest, not naive political friends say yes. Listen to Jill Stein on Rob Kall’s recent radio show (or read transcript): http://www.opednews.com/articles/Transcript-70-Minute-Inte-by-Rob-Kall-120809-843.html — she knocks it out of the park! Also see Public Comment (pubcomm.blogspot.com) and keep an eye on the jillstein2012 Tweet scroll in side bar (also on JillStein.org website). Read her Green New Deal on her website and pass it around (it’s well done and holds water). Get her into lots more media to get her polls to rise beyond 15% to get her into debates and we’ll have a different kind of president! Obama has seduced Maddow, Larry and Ed — they (and all so-called progressive media like Daily Kos et al) have to be strapped to the mast to get by Obama’s siren song and pay serious attention to Jill Stein.
She’s our ticket to turn the corner.
Thanks for a really good blog post.
I’m truly disappointed that Maddow hasn’t turned her spotlight on Stein, if even in passing. Worse, there’s been so little analysis of Obama’s ecological performance that most democrats still believe him to be “greener” than Romney. Thanks for the referral to that interview!
I hope nobody is DISAPPOINTED in Obama at this point. To be disappointed means you actually expect something better from him. He has proven over and over again that HOPE is the last thing he’ll bring, along with the CHANGE that he has so smoothly lied about in his speeches.
Abandon useless disappointment and take on, as I have, the DETERMINATION to terminate his presidency.
Jill Stein is indeed our only realistic representative for true hope and change. We can no longer “play politics” with elections. We must act as clear-thinking and responsible adults.
We can and will win this election if we refuse to stand down; if we persevere in our courage to take our stand against corporate power by voting for the ONE candidate who is doing exactly that – Jill Stein.
Well said, Doug.
Just sent a Tweet to Maddow telling her to strap herself to the mast and stop listening to Obama’s siren song and start listening to Jill Stein’s Green New Deal. Maddow has drunk the Kool-Aid — so far — unless we can nicely nudge her to wake up and get back to reality. We’re talking one of the brightest women (or people) who ever walked in America — and she’s vacant! She of all people should instantly see Stein’s quality and strength. It’s a mystery. I will continue cajoling her. Meanwhile encouraging every other form of media I can. This is the royal road to 15% and debates. Then it’s over — she’ll cream the Corporatist Bobsy Twins (without calling them that). She very charming — this has not been said and should be. She’s a natural media presence.
Dr. has my Vote, proudly. Don’t be hard on Rachael, she works under a dictatorship, censoring her every story. That’s what happens when all the air-waves are owned by fox. two men own every channel on tv, accept FSTV & RT…So don’t look for Doc on CNN, they denied any coverage of Ron Paul also. Ross Perot also was denied coverage when he began to climb. (he was threatened to stand down, his family also)…These people don’t play or like to loose. Just ask DR. King, Pres. JFK, or RFK , get the picture.?
Dr. Stein be careful. I wish to volunteer to help you win, God knows we need you!
Hi Janet M.
Well-taken point re corporate dictatorship of the media. I remember all too well those infamous assassinations of Kennedy, King and Kennedy – which have carried on through the present with Paul Wellstone, the pilots of the Air Force plane that “mistakenly” carried the nuclear bomb (missile?) across the country (I believe I heard that there were about eight altogether, and that most, if not all of them had “accidents” within a few weeks of that flight, and most recently Obama’s assassination of Anwar Alwaki and his 16-year-old son.
Yes we’re up against a true Mob, and Mob “rules of law,” which translates to they rule and they make the laws up, or break them, as they go.
Jane,
My sentiments exactly. I’ve loved Maddow from her radio days, and I agree, she’s got enough smarts in her pinky fingernail to run rings around most. In fairness to her I can understand how powerful the help Obama has given to LGBT causes has affected her. After all, anyone who has been fighting these issues for practically their entire lifetime would have to feel a great deal of appreciation for, and even ascribe hope to the man who has at least made some positive gestures, and whose Republican opponent is sure to undo.
This is a chief reason for her loyalty to Obama, in my view. If that’s not correct then I have a much more difficult time understanding why she has such effective “blinders” on.
I know she’s capable of being a huge boost to Jill Stein. I’m sure she’s read plenty, but perhaps it will just take that personal contact with Dr. Stein to bring home the wisdom of supporting her, or at the very least giving more air time to her points of view on the issues. And they’re fellow-Massachusetts residents!
We’ll all just have to keep up the pressure, as you are.
Doug
Good morning, Doug.
Thought about the gay issue and you might be right. Allow me to practice on you in preparation for Rachel: As a gay person myself, much as I look toward gay rights (and have fought for them), I’m old enough (late 60s) to be realistic about priorities — and gay rights do not in my mind hold a candle to dirty energy policies, Keystone XL pipeline enabling tar sands extraction (“game over for climate change,” says Hansen) and other environmental stuff O is willing to embrace. Gay rights will come along in good time (as they have) regardless of Obama but these other issues (incomplete list) are time-imminent and do not mention slightly (but not much) less time-imminent items like Wall Street reforms to reinstate Glass-Stiegall, halting/re-vamping horrendous trade deals, you know the list,
At the heart of your comment there’s an assumption (not by you perhaps but in our imagination of Rachel’s view) that Dr Stein would lose and Romney would get in and make matters worse for gays. I dunno. Stepping back to look at big pic, I’m not thinking that way. I’m looking at the same yaw that Stein is looking at, those masses of millions of unemployed/underemployed workers, underwater homeowners, and all those indentured students in the new OWS ad on You Tube — those are millions of potential voters she might be able to tap into. Remember she doesn’t have to win more than half the vote, only more than a third in a virtual 3-way race.
In other words, she could win.
If there’s a flaw in the Stein march forward, it is that she needs to be flanked down-ticket by dozens, hundreds of Green candidates. This should have built up among Greens long before this. We developed a few in CA (where I lived many years before recently retiring to Philly). Maybe OWS will help Stein if they’re willing to let their “rubber hit the road” and carry her on their shoulders (figuratively as part, not all, of her campaign) while they “hit the streets.”
I’m thinking of making my own YouTube take-off in answer, saying something like “Occupy the ballot. We’re drowning in loan fraud and melting ice caps. Real world participation = VOTE Jill Stein for President.”
Something like that.
Janet does a nice job with this site, eh?
Hi Janet,
Thanks so much for your thoughts. We seem to be thinking almost exactly alike. I too am in my late 60s. The relighting of the protest fires is exciting, watching Occupy do it’s thing(s). The chilling part is how much more repressive the corporate powers have become since then. Yes, we had Chicago in 68, but that police repression doesn’t begin to reflect the systemic spread out there today. And now the politicians hardly show a wink of interest in halting it. In fact most support it (by corporate demand of course).
Your arguments to Rachel seem powerful and well thought out. For me the LGBT community remains very important (as I’m sure it does for you) – right up there with more economic equality, rights of the poor, rights of the aging, children, etc., etc. But the clincher, as I see it, is global warming. If we were to regain all the human rights issues, end wars, etc., etc., but do nothing to change the suicidal path we’re on to runaway greenhouse (emphasis on “runaway”) the other victories would be pyrrhic and short-lived. Most important is that we make it possible to continue to have a planet on which to live out our various dramas.
Let me pass on an idea I had. I sent it to Ben Manski, but I don’t know how much he’s able to maintain personal access to all the communication going his way these days. It’s a contingency plan I thought of in case Jill doesn’t make it to the debates. That is a distinct possibility; some would say probability.
I’ll paste that portion of the email here:
A contingency thought, in case you don’t get into the debates, or perhaps even if you do get in:
Why not break the rules of tradition (hell, they’re all rules the 1% have imposed anyway), and announce people who would fill the posts in the new Green Administration. I suggested this weakly before, but the more I think about it, the more I think it can be a powerful weapon against TPTB. You might even go as far as contacting some of these people to see if they would accept the posts, and be willing to have their future appointment be announced, in case Dr. Stein wins.
Names like Ellen Brown and Bill McKibben, come quickly to mind, as well as David Korten. You’ve got Sec. of State, Sec. of Treas., Housing & Urban dev., etc., etc., etc.
Contrast Obama’s “surprise” appointments after he was elected. Contrast Romney’s sure-to-be-included list (backed up by his VP choice)!
If debates don’t include her, perhaps she and her “future appointees” could meet to discuss things that must be done to implement the Green Platform, and the foci of each of the appointees that would be taken. Get this televised in any way possible. Show the American people they have someone who’s willing to put her cards plainly on the table, and watch them drop their jaws with the thought that such an administration can actually exist by November, if they’ll only vote their conscience and their beliefs, instead of fear and despair.
Convince them that IT DOESN’T MATTER how much money is thrown at the other two, if in fact we do take matters in our own hands. The PEOPLE aren’t puppets of the 1%ers. We have our minds and our wits about us, and we have control over them to mark the ballot for Stein/Honkala. I think the public would love the thought that they can make the “corporate greedy’s” money useless and impotent. It’s our vote that counts.
Ryan puts even more “blood in the water.” Make them pay, make them pay!
Onward!
So what do you think of that idea?
I think what you’ve prepared for Rachel is very effective. It’s good to know someone who has the courage and the determination to get her into office in any way possible.
Doug
Doug, just got home (after 9 pm EST), will reply later, just letting you know “Janet” is (I believe) the name of the kind hostess of this blog and my name is “Jane.” Talk to you later.
Hi Jane,
Oops! Pardon my carelessness. I’ll be sure in the future to dot my “I”s and cross (OUT) my “T”.
Doug
I agree with everything you just said and I hope we can do this!! We can do this!! ” Together we Stand, Divided We Fall,” POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Let’s get busy! This is Good, food for the soul!
Two Janets have joined the conversation, and greetings from the original.
@Doug: I’m digging the idea of Dr. Stein premeditating office duties and acting comme si she is there already. I think that would certainly illustrate that the wants the presidency for the job description and NOT the job title, but also that she has the future always on mind.
@Jane, Merci bien! I’m glad such an important dialogue is taking place here. That’s what I originally intended when I wrote this blog. As regards Rachel, whether or not her reasoning follows her emotional attachment to LGBT equality, I think that she (of all people) understands that this issue is not something that can be imposed, morally, from capital hill. Equality demands a ethical zeitgeist, and when people evolve socially, the laws come riding with the wind. Our government is not there to make us moral: it is there to organize, educate, and hold all entities accountable to the laws of the land. And the land is telling us that she’s been abused long enough.
@ (other) Janet: Thank you! Pass this around and see how you can get involved in her campaign (if you haven’t already). I’m working on my Nevada home state… wish me luck.
Doug, this might be a nice idea for Dr Stein if she has a deep team already in mind she can name by that time. She might not, however, and I wonder if she might want flexibility in her choices as she emerges, gathering momentum late in the game. Her late showing of strength could raise the interest of potential cabinet members who might have held off to commit to her until then. It’s tricky. I like the transparency of your idea. Perhaps her “campaign character” could be communicated in other ways that leave her flexible, like contrasting herself with corporate campaign donations which she refuses to accept and what exactly that means, the flexibility allowed by not being locked into corporate interests. Not quite as glamorous as your thought but potent in its own way if she (and her hopefully articulate surrogates) talk about the financing of her campaign in dramatic, exciting ways, in terms that set off democracy vs corporatocracy — and really using that word so people learn what it means. There’s no freedom in a corporatocracy. There’s no Constitution or Bill of Rights. No president, no Congress. There’s no truth, only endless PR, advertising and talking points designed for selling (not inherently a bad thing except when that’s all there is), only appearance, no reality. It’s really a form of slavery although we can’t use that term in public but we can describe the limited action, the lack of freedom, the forced actions, the lack of care for human life, on and on. I’m suggesting a certain kind of language she (and we) should not fear to use because it will educate the public as we bump up against time-imminent global warming and climate change, perhaps another economic crash. The public needs to hear the truth and be prepared for what’s coming. That’s Jill’s specialty. I know her mind, worked for many years with medical doctors managing their practices. She’s a gem within her profession, one can see it clearly. As Janet said in her marvelous post, our future is in renewables and managed from community level — and the future is now for Stein’s Green New Deal, creating good-quality jobs building renewable energy systems (among other things). All federal and state carbon subsidies should be immediately shifted to renewables and TRIPLED. (I’m asking her to call for that). If Jill Stein doesn’t win the election, she can at least make a powerful educational impression on the American public to get her foot in the door of the truth to help get down-ticket Greens elected (the Green Party is just the best political structure we’ve got and it needs improvement by having millions of us join it and making it better). I’m suggesting Jill Stein tell the truth eloquently, as she has so far, and keep on doing it. If she makes it into the debates, this will be her great value, as the truth-teller. She will stand out. Outside the debates she still stands out because she’s telling the truth and people recognize it instantly. Keep working on the Stein campaign, Doug, and I will do the same. She made it onto the PA ballot (not easy in this state with a shale gas industry underboss for governor). We’re very proud of Jill’s ballot position here.
Hi Janet,
Thanks for the support. Thank you also for this wonderful place for discussion. I live in Ireland, so this is a great help in keeping me in touch with those who are living directly through this nightmare.
Doug
Hi Jane,
Thanks for your ideas. You may well be right, it might be wise to keep options open. There might be a middle ground though. As the saying goes, at least as Clinton labelled it, “It’s the money, stupid!” This is the proven motivation for the majority of voters, a fact that gives me hope given the mess that the Republicats/Demlicans have made of our system. Of course it’s actually the Corporate PTB who put our political puppets in their positions to carry out this system.
So it might be helpful for Jill Stein to name one of the Financial cabinet positions to give people a clear idea of what she’s planning – already clearly stated in the Green New Deal, but with the addition of having a name and a face with which to connect . Obama’s sneak attack appointments right after his election are still burning in the memories of many I suspect. And now Romney has clearly shown what we might expect of him by way of appointments, given his VP selection! It might also have a modicum of a chance to make the MSM. Who knows? I think it’s worth a try.
As for the rest of your comments, my reply is “Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes again!” Your kind of clear thinking and your determined attitude have to be a huge help. They certainly are encouraging for me to read!
Doug