For democracy’s sake, the Green Party must grow. Stein won’t do it in 2024

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently made headlines for calling perennial Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein “predatory” and “not serious.” AOC is right.

Giving voters more choices is a good thing for democracy. But third-party politics isn’t performance art. It’s hard work — which Stein is not doing. As AOC observed: “[When] all you do is show up once every four years to speak to people who are justifiably pissed off, but you’re just showing up once every four years to do that, you’re not serious.”

To be clear: AOC was not critiquing third parties as a whole, or the idea that we need more choices in our democracy. In fact, AOC specifically cited the Working Families Party as an example of an effective third party. The organization I lead, MoveOn, supports their 365-day-a-year efforts to build power for a pro-voter, multi-party system. And I understand third parties’ power to activate voters hungry for alternatives: I myself volunteered for Ralph Nader in 2000, and that experience helped shape my lifelong commitment to people-first politics.

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  • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
    22·
    3 个月前

    You should encourage people to embarrass themselves so you can correct the record. The Green Party has been around since the 1990’s, and was founded in 2001. Jill Stein is not the Green Party, it will exist after her, provided people are brave enough to separate their identities from the two-party system in America. If you don’t like Jill Stein, have a look at the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

    • Soup@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      11·
      3 个月前

      Right… so, vote the party, not the people- right? You’re as plastic as you accuse others of being. West and Stein are provenly useful idiots;

      ““Cornel West, he’s one of my favorite candidates. I like her also, Jill Stein, I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100 percent from them. He takes 100 percent.”

      ~ Donald Trump

      This is all the Green Party does, and everyone knows it. Seriously man…. Grow up.

      • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 个月前

        Such hostility for having thoughtful views, no wonder America is in this position. I’m voting for Harris, as a pragmatist. But I will not demean others for not voting for a genocide or voting third party. That is their right in a democracy. I’m simply pointing out that the choices we have been given are not going to change until we choose to step outside the paradigm. How can a third party that everyone seems to want develop, unless people choose to support it?

        • Soup@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          11·
          3 个月前

          Fair enough, but as I said in the beginning- if the Green Party wants to be taken seriously- they need it offer up better options than a few clowns that show up every four years to spoil elections.

          Stein and West are useless three years of every four. And you know this.

          So stop offering up a non-point of choice when it’s proven that it only hurts our chances to save democracy.

          And:

          I will not demean others for not voting for a genocide

          I never once “demeaned” anyone for not voting for a genocide. This is fucking stupid. So… Nice try playing the victim card. This is why I can’t take you seriously.

          • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
            21·
            3 个月前

            “It’s never the right time,”, cries liberalism.

            It’s all well and good to recognize the structural constraints imposed by America’s political system, and the difficulty of passing major reforms in the face of organized opposition. But for too many of America’s leading liberal politicians, “realism” has become an identity unto itself, unmoored from any programmatic orientation toward the future or sustained effort to bring about significant change.

            • Soup@lemmy.cafeEnglish
              11·
              3 个月前

              The fact that you think an op-ed piece is relevant to this discussion shows how you lack the maturity to even be a part of it.

              The Green Party is pointless. And the fact that it remains so even with people like you trying to prop it up- exemplifies that.

              We’re done here.