[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [gpsmc-d] Fwd: [usgp-media] New Green Party presidential candidate both a dream and a potential nightmare for liberal Democrats

[Gerry Gras]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[gpsmc-d] Fwd: [usgp-media] New Green Party presidential
candidate both a dream and a potential nightmare for liberal Democrats
Date: 	Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:03:33 -0800
From: 	Sanda Everette <sanda at greens.org>
To: 	GPSMC-D <gpsmc-d at cagreens.org>



I thought this was an interesting article about Jill Stein.




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Starlene* <greenstarlene at gmail.com <mailto:greenstarlene at gmail.com>>
Date: Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 5:23 PM
Subject: [usgp-media] New Green Party presidential candidate both a
dream and a potential nightmare for liberal Democrats
To: Media Committee <usgp-media at gp-us.org <mailto:usgp-media at gp-us.org>>


http://ivn.us/2011/10/31/new-green-party-presidential-candidate-both-a-dream-and-a-potential-nightmare-for-liberal-democrats/

by: Alan Markow

For liberal Democrats disappointed in Barack Obama’s presidency, the
Green New Deal that is the heart of Dr. Jill Stein’s newly minted
Green Party presidential campaign must feel like a dream come true.
It’s all the things that they had hoped for from Obama but failed to
get, despite Democratic control of the House and Senate in his first
two years of office.

But for Democrats who remember Bush v. Gore v. Nader in 2000, the
Stein candidacy could seem more like a nightmare. It could seriously
undermine the re-election of a Democratic president facing 9 percent
unemployment and a 40 percent approval rating, and who appears to
share, at least rhetorically, some or most of the political views of
the Green Party.

Stein, however, laughs off the comparisons.

“Just because Obama claims to be a liberal and to support Occupy Wall
Street doesn’t mean he’s not pro Wall Street,” Stein told me in an
interview this weekend.  “Look at who he brought into his inner circle
from the very beginning – Wall Street insiders like Tim Geithner,
Larry Summers and William Daley.”

Stein calls for the re-enactment of the much-maligned (and
feared)Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment
banking between 1933 and 1999, and the prosecution of what she calls
“Wall Street crooks.“  She believes that Obama failed to take strong
action at the incipience of his term, choosing instead to “protect
criminals” (in her words), and noting that the President opposed
taking legal action against mendacious banking executives who cost
Americans billions of dollars.

She also likes to remind voters that Obama has left the
liberty-restricting Patriot Act in place and has been quick to pursue
new military adventures in the Middle East.  But Stein’s campaign goes
beyond civil liberties, banking, and the traditional environmental
focus of the Green Party.  The foundation of her movement is the Green
New Deal, which includes the following:

1.  An end to unemployment through the development of green
infrastructure jobs

2.  Single payer health insurance for all

3.  Free pre-k through college education

4.  Forgiveness of all student debt

5.  A moratorium on home foreclosures

6.  Immediate return home of the troops – including private security
contractors – from Iraq and Afghanistan

Stein believes the Green New Deal is the right solution for today’s
mix of financial and morale problems the country is facing, and she
claims she can do all of this and balance the federal budget.  As an
example, she cites healthcare costs, which have spiraled out of
control because of our focus on treating rather than preventing
illness.

“Both Obamacare and Romneycare are disasters,” she told me (she is a
resident and practicing physician in Massachusetts).  “Most healthcare
systems are wasteful because they are not comprehensive in nature.
You can’t treat half of the body as these programs do.”

On her web page, she describes her healthcare plan as a “Medicare for
all system” and claims that it merely catches the United States up
with the rest of the world.  She also defends the existing Social
Security system as sustainable, and calls climate change “the greatest
threat confronting our generation.”

In addition to reducing healthcare and military costs, Stein would
propose paying for her Green New Deal with additional, tiered taxes on
wealthy Americans, a tax on Wall Street transactions, and a tax on
corporate off-shore operations that are currently protected tax
havens.

“Obama’s jobs plan and his proposed taxes to pay for it are just a
drop in the bucket,” Stein said.  “It’s not fiscally sound.  I’m a
deficit hawk.  Under my plan we could run circles around these
so-called fiscal hawks by doing the right things.”

In the big picture, getting elected as a third party candidate is
undoubtedly a major challenge, but governing without a major party
apparatus behind her could be an even greater trial.

“I plan to use the bully pulpit,” she told me.  “My election will
signal an earthquake.  Then I can build on the good will that got me
there.”

Also, it normally takes big money to make a significant political
impact.  Stein’s answer, though, is to get money out of politics.

“I want to change the rules, to return to the days of an unfettered
press that is not controlled by big money interests and provides free
and equal access for political candidates.  We’ll have to work an end
game around the Supreme Court’s rulings on Citizens United and other
findings because passing a Constitutional Amendment takes too long.
But it can be done,” Stein said.  “The people want change.”

The groundswell that has already set her candidacy in motion is the
Occupy Movement, which Stein speaks of enthusiastically on her
website.  It is also supported by President Obama and most Democrats,
but Stein strongly rejects the President’s position as meaningless
rhetoric.

“He has had the chance to take action against Wall Street and has
embraced its tenets instead.  We must not surrender to those who are
mouthpieces for big money industries.”

Before Stein can attempt to implement her Green New Deal, she faces
the daunting task of winning the Presidency, which requires gaining
ballot access in most or all of the 50 states, and defeating the
powerful Republican and Democratic party machines arrayed against her.
   The odds are staggering, but this does seem to be a season for
seismic change in American politics.

Stein, her husband and their two children reside in Lexington,
Massachusetts, where she has previously been a gubernatorial
candidate.  She is originally from Chicago.
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