(Article changed on October 18, 2012 at 09:39)
(Article changed on October 18, 2012 at 07:37)
(Article changed on October 18, 2012 at 07:33)
Dr. Jill Stein by jillstein.org
I've watched presidential politics closely in the forty plus years since I read political science and economics at Stanford. In that time, I've seen Democrats and Republicans hand the presidency back and forth many times. But it's clear to me that regardless of who moves into the Oval Office, the power of a self-serving economic elite has grown steadily. Now, in 2012, we've come to the point where a few banks and bank holding companies control the economy and the political system. The president, in effect, works for them and not for the people
Elections are no longer the means by which the people hold politicians accountable. The dominant two-party political structure has become nothing more than a tool of misinformation by which we are persuaded that there is a meaningful choice between clashing red and blue flavors, when the only real difference is food coloring, not ingredients.
During these four decades, this drift has continued under both Democratic and Republican presidents: real wages have remained flat; war profiteering has continued apace; wealth has been redistributed and consolidated in ever-smaller concentrations of the population; public services have declined; health care has become less affordable; necessary environmental regulations are routinely overridden by profiteers; long-term climate issues are not being addressed with the biosphere in mind; private corporations are attempting to patent food, by forcing genetically-modified seeds onto the market and marginalizing legacy seeds; mass media is more and more centralized; elections are dominated by big money donors and voting processes are no longer verifiable; natural herbal remedies are criminalized, while pharmaceutical companies profiteer by patenting medicines designed to manage and prolong disease, enabled by the insurance companies and medical associations, who collude to set diagnosis and prescription requirements; and the banking industry perpetrates fraud as a standard business model, manipulating interest rates, capital markets, currencies, and commodity prices, cyclically choking the money supply to seize assets through bankruptcy, foreclosure, and joblessness.
Have we had enough? I have. I see that the middle class, the economy, and the planet have been pushed to the breaking point.
That's why I've decided to send a message to those who control the process by voting for the one candidate who really represents change, Jill Stein of the Green Party. In choosing a candidate who represents sustainable, people-first principles, I'm raising the standard for what a candidate must do to get my vote. Jill Stein represents more than just a set of good policies -- she represents principled leadership that comes from outside the political and economic establishment and acts in our interests, if we vote for it.
Second, my vote for a third party will help diversify the political landscape and give voters real choices at the polls. If the Green Party can get 5% of the vote in this election, they would emerge as a real alternative to the red and blue servants of big finance. They would secure ballot access in most states, and become an important voice over the next four years for the interests of people and the environment.
And third, my vote will help spread the word for Jill Stein's Green New Deal, a package of critical policy proposals that, if enacted, will transform the U.S. and the world into a place where jobs, education, healthcare, and other essentials to human dignity are available to all.
The Green New Deal would return the control over money creation to sovereign nations and states, and stop the big banks from enriching themselves at our expense. It would give us verifiable voting, campaign finance reform, and a return to a true democracy in which voters, not financiers, set the course for the nation.
There are those who will argue that we should settle for the options that the rich and powerful are willing to give us. They say that voting for the lesser of two evils is "strategic," while voting for our very survival is "utopian." I can't agree with that, not if we are living as free human beings. Our nation was founded by brave souls who stood up for liberty against a global colonial power. Now is our time to bring this vision to fruition.
