When the U.S. Green Party’s presidential candidate Jill Stein stepped onstage at the Party convention in Houston last weekend, she was greeted by a rousing, sustained chant of “Jill, not Hill!”
As one reporter put it:
“It was hard to tell whether the more dominant emotion was enthusiasm for Jill Stein or dislike of Hillary Clinton.”
It’s no secret that a sizeable number of left-leaning voters have their doubts about Clinton. Many people who were ardent Bernie Sanders supporters — until he dropped out of the race to be the Democrats candidate — are reluctant to switch their allegiance. Stein and her campaign managers are hoping to persuade those discontented or wavering voters to rally around the Green flag.
In an interview at the convention with the British Guardian newspaper, Stein said:
“Politics as we know it is melting down in front of our very eyes, voters are in revolt, are rejecting the Democratic and Republican candidates at record numbers. Hillary and Donald [Trump] are the most disliked and untrusted candidates for president in US history and even their supporters don’t really support them, they just don’t like the other candidate. People are clamoring for more choices. We are that other choice.”
Kent Mesplay, who had vied to be the Party’s presidential candidate until the nomination was awarded to Stein, made an impassioned speech at the convention. It featured a scathing attack on Clinton and an unsubtle dig at Sanders, who dismayed many of his supporters when he officially backed her. Mesplay told the audience:
“I know you’ve had it with the corrupt and unfair Democratic party. The leader of your revolution has sold you out to a corporate shill and warmonger. So what are you to do? Be Green!”
But although the mood in Houston was upbeat and positive, not everything in the Green garden is blooming. The Party still remains very much an outsider party and a relatively small player. Only 500 delegates attended the convention and media coverage was almost non-existent. There’s also a degree of discord within the Party, with some activists claiming it is too closely aligned to the privileged, white upper and middle classes.
In addition, several political commentaries – including one here at Liberal America – have voiced concerns that support for Stein could dilute the Democrat vote; a spoiler effect that would hand an advantage to Trump. They back their argument by citing the 2000 Presidential election, when votes for the independent Ralph Nader proved costly to Al Gore and were a major factor in his narrow loss to George W. Bush.
Pundit and columnist Dan Savage was particularly blunt in his assessment. In an article for The Stranger, he wrote:
“A vote for Jill Stein in 2016 is a vote for Donald Trump. Stein knows it, Andrea Mérida Cuéllar [Green Party national co-chair] knows it, and the Green Party knows it and doesn’t care.”
Watch Jill Stein lay out the Green Party position in this two-minute video.
Featured image: Cagle Cartoons
