Follow on TwitterGreen Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Addresses The 5 Most Important Issues Facing The U.S.
On October 24, at the historic State House in Boston, The Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein announced her candidacy for President of the United States. She is running as the alternative to the two ‘Wall Street’ parties that have remained steadfast in selling out the interests of the American people for the enrichment of the corporatocracy.
A couple months before her Presidential announcement, Dr. Stein was asked to identify five pressing issues facing our nation, and how she would resolve them as President of the United States:
Jobs:
CREATE JOBS THROUGH A GREEN NEW DEAL – an emergency program to achieve full employment and jump start a green economic recovery. This would provide a Manhattan Project/WWII scale mobilization to transition to clean renewables and related green sectors of the economy (including local food and recycling manufacturing) to avert climate catastrophe while achieving energy independence, improving trade balances and meeting urgent transportation, energy, housing and environmental infrastructure needs for the 21st century.
It will be funded by taxing the rich and large corporations, through trillion dollar savings from single payer health care and the associated reduction of health care inflation, and through downsizing the bloated military.
The Green New Deal will get economic help directly to people – and end the Obama/Bush trickle-down philosophy that forces ordinary people to subsidize the massive transfer of wealth and power to the super-rich.
Restoring the American Dream:
The Green New Deal will include an ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS, including the right to living wage jobs, health care, quality education, retirement security, and affordable housing.
Endless Wars:
PEACE NOW – End the needless wars that have drained America of the resources we need to fund our communities. Bring the troops and war dollars home now. Reduce the bloated military budget to provide defense not empire building.
Imperiled U.S. Democracy & Civil Liberties:
RESCUE DEMOCRACY — Restore our freedom of political expression, our imperiled civil liberties, and protections from government surveillance by the swollen Homeland Security complex.
End the hijacking of political speech by the biggest spender, (resulting from the Citizens United and Buckley v Valeo supreme court decisions).
Create real freedom of political expression, full public participation, and informed voter choice – free from fear and intimidation – at the polls through policy reforms including: publicly funded elections, free access to public airwaves for all legitimate candidates, instant runoff voting and proportional representation, fair ballot access for all political parties and candidates, safeguards against electronic election fraud, and an end to voter suppression schemes, the corporate-electoral revolving door, and rampant influence-peddling by lobbyists.
Health Care:
SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE (improved Medicare-for-all) to provide quality, comprehensive health care to all as a human right.
Single payer saves money by ending the 30% administrative overhead of private insurance and by controlling the runaway health care inflation that is bankrupting families, business, and all levels of government. And it puts an end to insurance company meddling in personal health care decisions and choice of doctor.
For those who wish to learn more about Dr. Stein’s policy positions, she did a Q&A session this week with the CA Independent Voter Network, where she expounds on her vision for a new America. In the interview, she addresses the importance of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the commonalities between the Green Party and the Ron Paul wing of the Tea Party, RomneyCare and ObamaCare, how Bush and Obama have egregiously abused their executive powers, and how both Presidents have violated our civil liberties in ways that signal the beginnings of a ‘proto-fascist state.’
More information on Jill Stein can be found on her website, and by following her on Twitter.
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No chance of winning. Virtually unknown and not enough time before Nov 2012 to become known. I’m active politically and today is the first day I even heard of Jill. Great platform but should have started running years ago (and if she did, it wasn’t very effective because I never heard of her). Maybe 2016?
In this 2-party corporatocracy, change will never come easy. A great deal of the anger and frustration coming from the streets – occupy wall street, etc – is due to the fact that U.S. democracy has been hijacked. That the system is rigged.
Perhaps people will surprise you this year, and do the unthinkable. Perhaps they will not walk the same line, which ultimately leads them to the same results.
Odds are stacked heavily against any third party candidate, since the corporate media will ignore them, and the two corporate-owned parties will do everything in their power to keep them out of debates, off the ballots, etc.
But you have to begin somewhere, and then build on it.
This perspective mystifies me. The question is, “Why do you vote?” Do you vote to make your voice and opinion heard? Do you vote for a candidate you hope will win or the one who has the most support? Sounds to me like you are choosing candidates based on popularity, which will win you the status quo every time. I choose candidates according to the issues, and to me, that makes all the difference.
The corporate media might ignore her initially but she really is the winning ticket in my eyes and in the eyes of many who perhaps don’t know it yet. I think the Occupy Wall Street movement shows that people want real change and not just rhetoric and more lies, but it will take a tremendous effort to provide a platform for her through social media and a demand from independent media outlets to provide media coverage of her. It is a major relief that she is contending and I for one will be behind her for as far as she can go in the 2012 presidential election.