Bernie Sanders just passed the torch to Dr. Jill Stein, and this political revolution continues stronger than ever, especially since Stein is today the most powerful woman in politics. I explain my thought process during a recent YouTube segment, but Tim Black’s amazing interview of Dr. Stein also speaks volumes. The Green Party’s Stein is now the liberal establishment’s worst nightmare: a trustworthy and inspiring progressive candidate who stands for ideals and principle. No more of Clinton’s prison lobbyist donors or FBI criminal investigations, just an honest woman named Jill Stein who states “Berners, I repeat: this isn’t the end…Not by a long shot.”
Dr. Stein also correctly states “If you don’t want to vote for a warmonger or racist billionaire, there are more options.” It might come as a surprise to Hillary voters, but most Americans are tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. Ultimately, when Bush administration officials are voting for Hillary Clinton, progressive politics needs a savior.
After Bernie endorsed Clinton, millions of Americans to the left of center, and many who are simply disgusted with politics, are looking for inspiration. Stein provides this hope and energy, and gives people an alternative to the lesser evil calculus stating Clinton is better than her husband’s golfing partner. However, voters longing for Stein, and the Green Party, must remember the struggle and experiences of Bernie voters.
The day Bernie Sanders endorsed Clinton, The Nation’s Joan Walsh called me a “lunatic,” and stated that “people should stop paying attention” to my thoughts. This sentiment comes several months after my open letter to the FBI, published in both Salon and The Huffington Post, that Ms. Walsh complained was “idiotic.” Then of course, there’s The Daily Banter’s Bob Cesca who writes that I’m “dangerous” in a piece ironically titled Hillary Won’t Be Indicted, Proving Yet Again That H.A. Goodman is an Unapologetic Propagandist. Why Cesca would be thrilled any candidate escaped FBI and DOJ criminal indictments says everything about this election.
It seems like only a “propagandist” would sugarcoat a candidate’s FBI criminal investigation, as if criminal probes shouldn’t matter in a presidential race. Lord knows Bernie wasn’t saying anything, so somebody had to write about the biggest story ignored by Clinton supporters. Remember, however, that if it’s a Republican at risk of criminal indictments, both Cesca and Walsh would write incessantly about the rule of law.
From the fake outrage of Walsh and Cesca, to hit pieces by publications like Raw Story and The Daily Beast (essentially Clinton public relations firms), my advocacy of Bernie Sanders has been viewed as a threat to Clinton’s coronation. Since they wouldn’t dare provide a clear delineation between Bernie and Hillary, I was more than happy to do so, especially since most progressive writers were either too frightened, or too brainwashed to see the stark contrast between both candidates.
Of course, I was called “Baghdad Bob” because of my optimism, even though the haters ignored Clinton’s role in the Iraq War or the irony in such an insult. It was Clinton, during a 2005 visit to Iraq who stated “The fact that you have these suicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure.” Worried yet, about a leader with this type of wisdom?
Like any threat to the progressive establishment, Clinton’s Wall Street transcripts and prison lobbyist donors aren’t part of the debate. No, any deviation from the narrative that Republicans are bad and Clinton is less evil must be met with scorn. Walsh, Cesca and others will insult the disloyal, or disobedient; discussion over Clinton’s advocacy of the TPP over 45 times is never part of the equation.
The likelihood that Hillary Clinton would continue to push for the Trans Pacific Partnership as president, or the fact she’d send more Americans back to war, are overshadowed by fear of Trump. For establishment Democrats, you must fall in line or have your sanity questioned; Donald Trump overshadows relevant critique of Dear Leader Hillary.
Thus, Bernie Sanders and his supporters were seen not only as outsiders, but as possible enablers of Trump. In reality, it’s power and influence the establishment craves, not progressive values. Everything is fine, as long as Bernie or his supporters don’t win. If Sanders got too close, or if his supporters dared to imagine a Sanders presidency, then the “Bernie Bro” myth and Nevada chair throwing accusations painted millions with the same dangerous brush.
Of course, any mention of Clinton fabricating a story about Bosnian sniper fire, or laughing at a suspected child rapist passing a polygraph, is strictly prohibited. As CBS News writes, “But in the recording, Clinton indicated she believed her client was indeed guilty…Heard laughing, she said the polygraph test he managed to pass ‘forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs.’”
However, there’s another alternative, and a new hope in progressive politics that doesn’t entail voting for a Democrat who now faces questions regarding perjury. As Jill Stein writes in The Hill, there’s a new and vibrant option for Bernie voters:
Millions of hearts were breaking today, as Bernie Sanders delivered his long expected endorsement of Hillary Clinton, with notably less enthusiasm than the passion of his usual stump speech that followed.
Though Bernie urged his supporters to forget the past and focus on the future, we’d forget the past at our peril. We cannot forget the triumph of Bernie’s campaign, and the hunger of the public for an economy that works for working people, not just the billionaires.
My campaign offers people hope. Our Green New Deal is a plan to create 20 million living wage jobs while solving the climate crisis. Our call to abolish student debt provides millions of young people trapped by debt that failed to produce the jobs they promised. We can finally make health care a human right…
The consistent efforts of the Democratic Party to minimize, sideline, and sabotage the Sanders campaign are a wakeup call that we can’t have a revolutionary campaign inside a counter-revolutionary party.
The policies Ms. Clinton has fought for — along with her partner Bill Clinton — were the foundations of the economic disaster most Americans are still struggling with: the abuses of deregulated Wall Street, rigged corporate trade agreements, racist mass incarceration, and the destruction of the social safety net for poor women and children.
The Democrats for decades have increasingly campaigned on the politics of fear, of promoting a lesser-of-two-evils strategy for voting because “the Republicans are even worse.” But that politics of fear has brought us everything we were afraid of…
People are voting for Clinton because they fear Trump. And visa versa. But democracy is not what we don’t want. Democracy needs a moral compass of what we DO want.
Fear is the ultimate weapon of establishment Democrats and people who want nothing more than for you to “fall in line.”
I’ll admire and respect Bernie Sanders forever, but I’ll never “fall in line” and vote for anyone advised by Henry Kissinger, or Bush’s neoconservatives. As Robert Kagan stated regarding Clinton’s foreign policy, “If she pursues a policy which we think she will pursue…it’s something that might have been called neocon, but clearly her supporters are not going to call it that; they are going to call it something else.”
Sorry, not voting for a Democrat with a “neocon” foreign policy.
Give Jill Stein a look, and give her platform serious consideration. Around half of Bernie voters according to Bloomberg in late June will never vote for Hillary; a far more accurate assessment in my view than recent claims of the majority flocking to Clinton. Thus, a great many people are looking for options, now that the Clinton campaign forced Bernie’s endorsement.
If Clinton faces perjury charges before November, I’ll back Bernie Sanders, without hesitation. However, Jill Stein is not only a great alternative to status quo politics, but gives America hope for the future. For this reason, H. A Goodman is voting for Jill Stein in 2016.
Jill Stein gives us our democracy back. Dr. Stein has a genuine vision for the future and best of all, isn’t named Clinton. Remember, Clinton is only up a mere 4.5 points nationally over Trump, in an average of polls. Millions of votes could decide the election, and Stein now has the Democratic Party in the palm of her hands.
