[GPSCC-chat] Peoples Tribune Interview with Jill Stein Nov. 8

[perrysandy at aol.com]

Green Party is an Unstoppable Force!
The People’s Tribune interviewed Jill Stein, Presidential candidate for the Green Party.
By Sandy Reid
People’s Tribune: Did the Green Party achieve its goals in the Presidential election?
Jill Stein: The Green Party received something in the order of ½ million votes, maybe more. Every vote is an enormous victory on a very steeply tilted playing field. The election results confirm that we are winning though not in all of its rigged dimensions. The measure of a win to me is have we recovered our political voice, our political courage? Have we established a fight going forward? Do we have a vehicle to advance that fight? I think we have. The momentum is riding high. New people are coming into the Party, especially the young. This is the real win. Youth are the future. A whole generation of young people are living in poverty. The Green Party is providing a platform for the social movement that is alive and well. 
PT: Do you see growing numbers of people getting involved in a third party?
JS: Yes. A lot of powerful voices from the social movement have identified the Green Party as the way forward. Obama has not a single solution to offer.  Obama said his priority now is to cut a deal with the Republicans, a grand bargain that will start to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid. There are 20 million seniors being kept out of poverty by social security. We have the numbers to lift the cap on social security and have the wealthy pay their fair share. There’s plenty of money to keep social security repaying those that have already invested in it. In this election, we took the single stand to support Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, to stop the next free trade agreement, which will be another heavy wake up call. When the Transpacific Partnership that the president is negotiating is unleashed, it will continue sending jobs overseas. The Keystone Pipeline will be another big wake up call as the president gives the thumbs up to the northern half. He will no doubt try to cover his tracks with some marginal green jobs proposal that won’t be a drop in the ocean of what he’s doing in unleashing the fossil fuel change onto the planet. When people see the thumbs up for keystone, it will be a big mobilizer. It’s great to have built the vehicle onto which people can climb. It’s all about us acquiring the politics of courage to enable us to stand up and use the political power that we already have.
PT: What’s the next step for the Green Party?
JS: One idea is to focus a lot on local races where Greens are already a strong force. All over the country we’re seeing incredible candidates in places we never expected, like Tennessee and Texas and in some of the Republican southern states. There is a big fight on DC statehood; the Greens are standing up for that. There is a constitutional amendment to clarify that everyone has the right to vote. The Greens are standing up. The Greens are saying lets stop these bailouts to Wall Street, which are ongoing to the tune of $40 billion. We need to be a force to stop the keystone pipeline, to start the Green New Deal, to bail out the students, to put a moratorium on the foreclosures, to bring the troops home, downsize the military, and enact Medicare for all. These are all within our reach. We can’t afford to wait until the next elections. Together we will continue to be that unstoppable force.
Visit the Green Party website; jillstein.org to become part of the team,to sign up to volunteer and to stay in touch.
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