It is no secret that Barry Obama, the corrupt Chicago politician with a far right agenda, wants to destroy what remains of our tattered social safety net. Just the other day it was reported how frustrated he is that he is not being given enough credit for his attempts to dismantle Social Security and Medicare. And his bailout of the health insurance industry on the backs of taxpayers pretty much guarantees that tens of thousands will continue to die every year for lack of access to adequate medical care — particularly the poorest Americans.
In this regard he is absolutely no different from his good friend Mitt Romney, whose policies are identical to his own. Like Barry, Mitt wants to end the safety net, wage more wars against brown people, eliminate taxes on the wealthiest Americans while forcing the poorest to pay through the roof, and his answer to the health care crisis is identical to Barry’s, because he passed the exact same bailout in Massachusetts that was passed on the federal level.
Foreign policy? Identical.
Energy/environmental policy? Identical.
On imprisoning Americans with no due process whatsoever: Identical.
Mitt opposes same-sex marriage, but so does Barry, who defended DOMA in court by comparing gay marriage to incest and pedophilia and thinks states should be allowed to continue discriminating against gay marriage rights.
On virtually all issues, Barry and his good friend Mitt are on the exact same page. And if you think Barry would protect your abortion rights, ladies, remember that he worked tirelessly to make sure that abortion would not be covered in his health insurance industry bailout and that he is perfectly fine cozying up to anti-abortion groups. So no, don’t expect him to defend your right to an abortion when he happily signs it away.
So why would anyone who is reasonable vote for either major candidate? They’re both backed heavily by Wall Street, they both want to force you to buy private insurance, they both want to eliminate the safety net, they are both warmongers, they both believe in taking away Constitutionally protected liberties, they both hate LGBT and abortion, and they both have horrendous records of supporting big polluters. It is madness to think that voting for one because the other one is “so much worse” will yield a politician who isn’t actually worse than the one you thought you were voting against. In other words, by voting for the candidate you think is the “lesser” evil, you are guaranteeing that the greater evil gets in no matter what.
But there is a way out of this catch-22. You can vote Green. You can vote for Jill Stein. While the two moneyed candidates pretend to oppose each other with identical policies, Jill Stein, a long shot by her own admission, would put Americans back to work with a Green New Deal that would get us off fossil fuels and nuclear energy, and work to restore the planet. And unlike Barry and Mitt, who are supporting Wall Street’s foreclosure efforts, Stein showed she is willing to risk jail to defend people’s homes.
Now you will argue that a vote for the Green Party is a wasted vote, that by voting for them we’re ensuring that the Republican will get in. But whose fault is it that Barry, who won by a significant margin over his good buddy John mcCain in 2008, is running neck-and-neck with his friend Mitt? If Barry had governed as a progressive, he would be running well ahead. Instead, he doubled down on failed, far right Clintonian politics. And since his policies are indistingushable from Mitt’s, does it really matter which of the Wall Street Twins gets to sit in the oval Office come January?
The only way we’re ever going to hold politicians accountable for their actions is to hold our support until they do as we want them to. Anything less simply enables the ongoing cycle of evil getting into office to set policy.



17 Comments

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I believe Jill Stein is the best candidate for those with progressive ideals, but there are others. The only wasted votes are those for Obama or Romney which will keep us on the path we are on right now.
The next generation may judge us very harshly for treating this like a football game and voting for the supposedly “lesser of two evils” instead of doing the right thing.
GreenMan518–
x2
Highly recommended.
Blue
I’ll definitely be voting Green.
Conformism.
(Isn’t that an event in dog shows? Oh yeah: “Conformation”, an event I wouldn’t want to win [though I probably don't even qualify for it].)
And, I compared to top 20 donors for Romney this year, Obama 4 years ago, and Bush 8 years ago. Any guesses how it turns out?
All of Bush’s to 20 are in Obama’s to 30 and vice versa; Obama and Romney, almost identical.
Yes Jill Stein is not a part of the current day, fascism-as-governmental polices. She has my vote.
Yes, Dr. Jill Stein has my vote, no doubt about it. I was given pause today looking at Romney’s choice of hideously self-righteous Ayn Randian right-winger Paul Ryan but I got over it when I saw that even if I go back to Obama to counteract Romney’s co-option, Obama could lose anyway, whereas Jill Stein needs and deserves every ounce of effort I (and hopefully thousands more volunteers) can offer to help the 2012 election be different — not a choice of the lesser of two corporatists but the best we can produce in this great nation. If she doesn’t make this election round, she’ll be back for the next one . . . and the next. She’s persistent and has stamina. We have to start somewhere, sometime. The time is now and it’s actually ideal because the likenesses of Obama and Romney are so obvious, the seesaw so paralyzed in neutral. Now is the time to break through the corporatist sameness and elect a true progressive. It can be done.
Dr Jill Stein is a Harvard-educated physician, well-informed, savvy and articulate, a true progressive who reminds me why I am a progressive in the first place. I will not abandon her out of fear she might lose. That would be abandoning myself. I will trust in democracy (in concept at least) and do everything I can to help her win. I am 68 years old, fortunately still spry and energetic, aware of the risks of voting for Stein but as Greenman argues, both Romoney and Obama are bent upon ruining Medicare and SS, so I have little to lose by adding my vote to a rising swell of votes from these who truly need Dr Stein’s leadership. This is a no-brainer.
Her chances are far from hopeless when we consider that millions of unemployed and underemployed workers, underwater mortgage holders, deeply indentured college students and others might well notice Jill Stein speaking in the media (she is undefensive, speaks uncommonly well without notes) and vote for her Green New Deal (read this thing, it’s not pie-in-the-sky) to get us back above water. This is do-able. .
Here’s her website to prowl through, volunteer and donate to her developing campaign. She has qualified for federal matching funds; she’s just made the ballot in PA and is on ballot in many more states (updated on her website), performing as well or better than Mr Nader. We want her to get into the debates which requires 15% polling which requires media attention, so Tweet her up to MSNBC and other media outlets to “let Stein shine” on TV shows. Rachel Maddow, Larry O’Donnell, Ed Schultz should naturally welcome a genuine article like Jill Stein but they’re caught in Mr Obama’s seductive truiangulation and will have trouble freeing themselves to invite Stein on their shows, much less to promote her candidacy. They need to hear from readers of FDL and many others on the left.
As Hillel said, “If not now, when?”
http://my.firedoglake.com/thecallup/2012/08/11/video-green-partys-jill-stein-romney-is-a-wolf-in-wolfs-clothing-obama-is-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/
I, too, am voting for Stein, or, more accurately, for her policies.
I don’t know why any Democrat from a strongly red state would even consider voting for Obama.
If your state’s electoral votes are going to Romney Ryan anyway, your vote is purely symbolic, isn’t it?
What do you want it to symbolize? Approval of broken campaign promises? Approval of the Democratic Party’s relentless march to the right?
Huge recommend. Dissenta has said it best, also DW at the end of the Sunday Book Forum.
We have the opportunity this election to make a positive statement to build upon the negative one we sent in 2010, which the two parties chose to ignore. Since matters have only got worse, why would we think people would suddenly have forgotten the clarity they had then. The duopoly has another reality check coming, and they will not be able to ignore this one!
My vote will be for Jill Stein, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for working so diligently to get on the ballot and give us something to vote FOR.
Great job. Recommended.
I think Obama is better than Romney. However the more strength the Green Party gets the better a President Obama will be and the more pressure Romney gives Obama the worst will Obama’s policies be in the future.
People who reluctantly feel they must vote for the lesser evil will mostly stay home instead. Election excitement will bring many to the voting booth where some Green supporters may vote Obama the last minute.
If the Democratic Party would allow an all party included vice president debate Paul Ryan will defeat himself,
http://my.firedoglake.com/richardkanepa/2012/08/13/from-homeless-child-to-community-leader-now-vice-presidential-candidate-better-more-accurate-story-than-chopping-down-the-cherry-tree/
All three are Harvard-educated. That’s no recommendation! Harvard was built by slaves, and slavemasters. Not a lot has changed.
former Cambridge resident
One question here – my philosophy on this is we need to realize that the way the Republicans got so much power was by making sure they had candidates in every position from dog catcher to School Board to Water Board. And that those people won. Will the Green Party be helping encourage people locally to run for local positions?
I think it is grand for Jill to run for President, but she needs people in every locale to start putting things right. It needs to be a bottom up drive, not top down.
Matthew Detroit, President Bush was borderline retarded. Perhaps we need some ordinary Joes to fly our planes and be the doctor in the emergency room after getting a concussion.
On second thought Matthew if you are trying to get a discussion going with cheap shots more power to you.
RichardKanePA, It says in the above article that Obama is “the corrupt Chicago politician with a far right agenda.” In other words, it says Obama is a corrupt politician with a far right agenda. Yet, you say that you “think Obama is better than Romney”? There is something not right about what you said.
When someone is heinous, you don’t say they are better than someone else. For example, you do not say that one wife beater is better than another wife beater because this wife beater beats his wife less. Both wife beaters are bad, because they both beat their wives. So, both Obama and Romney are bad and should not be voted for.
What is coming from you seems to be standard Obama Supporter refrain–no matter how radical and heinous Obama is shown to be, pursuing an aggressive agenda to UNDERMINE social security, medicare, medicaid, while aggressively restructuring and lowering taxes for the top income earners, they always say they support Obama because “the other is worse.” That seems to be a mindless, robot-like, brainwashed behaviour worthy of the Obamabots.