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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
With Election Day lower than six weeks away, we’re joined now by Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and her operating mate, Butch Ware, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. On Friday, the Green Party suffered a setback when the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request to place Stein on the presidential poll in Nevada. The Democratic Party had sued to maintain Stein off the poll for failing to submit the correct kinds.
This comes as help for Stein has been rising in some areas over Vice President Kamala Harris’s refusal to name for an arms embargo on Israel. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, final month revealed a survey that confirmed Stein is main Harris amongst Muslim voters in three battleground states: Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin. MPAC, the [Muslim Public Affairs Council], additionally not too long ago endorsed Stein.
This is Dr. Stein’s third run for the presidency. Many Democrats view her as a spoiler candidate, pointing to the 2016 election when Hillary Clinton narrowly misplaced to Donald Trump. In that election, Clinton misplaced to Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by fewer votes than Stein had obtained. In this marketing campaign cycle, Democrats have fought to maintain the Green Party off the poll, whereas some supporters of Trump have helped Green Party with acquiring poll entry. Former Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow not too long ago represented the Green Party in its efforts to be positioned on the Nevada poll at the U.S. Supreme Court. Stein, although, like Ralph Nader earlier than her, has described her marketing campaign as one taking over the two-party duopoly in the United States.
Jill Stein joins us from Boston, and Butch Ware joins us from Santa Barbara, the place he teaches at UC Santa Barbara about the historical past of Africa and Islam.
We welcome you each to Democracy Now! Let’s begin, Jill Stein, by you telling us why you’re operating for president. What is it you see is most vital proper now?
DR. JILL STEIN: Well, let’s put it this manner. The American persons are in disaster in nearly each dimension of our lives, whether or not it’s the healthcare disaster and not with the ability to afford your prescription drugs. Some 8 million Americans should not in a position to afford their medicines. Eighteen million have been pushed into poverty by the prices of healthcare in the final 12 months for which knowledge was accessible. Half of all Americans are struggling to maintain a roof over their heads, severely economically burdened, attempting to only pay their hire. And we're spending half of our congressional {dollars} on the limitless struggle machine, of which the — this genocidal struggle towards Gaza is one instance that the American folks vehemently object to.
The American persons are calling for different choices. You know, who's anybody to say they need to be denied and that the two zombie political parties, which have so poorly served the American public, are the solely choices? You know, democracy is about competitors. The American persons are begging for different choices. They are entitled to know who these choices are.
It speaks volumes that the Democrats are pulling out all the stops, together with fraudulent impersonations of the Green Party, hiring infiltrators and spies, which they've publicly marketed for, and hiring a military of legal professionals, in their very own phrases, to mainly throw their opponents off the poll, fairly just because they're terrified of really assembly us in the court docket of public opinion and having an actual debate about the crises that the American folks face and the actual options that we alone are placing on the desk, from Medicare for All to free public greater training to hire management throughout the nation to fifteen million items of so-called social housing, which might meet our housing wants, reducing the army finances, and, above all, ending the genocidal struggle on Gaza proper now, which the American folks overwhelmingly help — a close to supermajority, really, helps a weapons embargo proper now.
And with Israel increasing this struggle, not solely into the West Bank, but additionally now into Lebanon, that is extraordinarily, terribly harmful. And once we hear the Biden-Harris administration say that, oh, there’s nothing they'll do, their arms are tied, that’s completely false. They can do like Ronald Reagan and merely make a telephone name and instruct Israel that this genocidal assault is over.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Jill Stein, I wished to ask you — immigration and border enforcement have turn out to be a key challenge on this election. There’s a raging nationwide debate on it. How do you and your proposals differ from these of Donald Trump or Harris?
DR. JILL STEIN: Yes. And certainly, we’ve seen Harris and the Democratic Party proceed to march to the proper, mainly adopting the insurance policies of Donald Trump. We have a really completely different method. In our view, the most vital factor that we will do to repair the disaster of migration is to cease inflicting it in the first place via regime change operations, via financial neocolonialism and domination, via the local weather disaster and via the struggle on medicine.
There are issues that we will do really proper now that can decompress the pressures which are pushing folks to hunt refuge at our borders. And that features, on day one of our administration, we might legalize marijuana and undercut the energy of the drug cartels to mainly trigger violence and wreak havoc on so many countries, notably south of the border. We wouldn't be overturning different democratically elected administrations, like, for instance, the Aristide presidency of Haiti, which we overturned twice. And after doing that, the U.S., below Hillary Clinton’s secretary of state administration, went in and reversed a minimal wage regulation that had raised the minimal wage from a pathetic 30 cents an hour merely to 60 cents an hour, and that was reversed by the energy of the U.S. as soon as we had overthrown the democratically elected authorities of Haiti.
So, you already know, it’s no shock, with all the crises that the U.S. has been behind with our financial domination, our neocolonialism, our regime change operations, our struggle on medicine — south of the border, particularly — and additionally with our failure to truly take actual, concrete steps on the local weather disaster — and that, in flip, is prompting so many hundreds of thousands of farmers to need to flee, as a result of they don't have any manner of supporting themselves as a result of of rampant drought and different local weather instability. There is a lot we will don't solely to mitigate our personal manufacturing of fossil fuels, which has skyrocketed, really, below Democratic administrations, way over it has below the Republican administrations, and which aren't adequately addressed by the Inflation Reduction Act, which is extra a fossil fuels first invoice — if we have now time to enter that — however we aren't taking care of, you already know, the many options we might present proper now which might decompress the disaster at the border.
And the last item to say right here is that as an alternative of spending billions of {dollars} on a wall, which solely kills folks, kills wildlife, destroys ecosystems, as an alternative we could be investing these {dollars} into immediate screening, background checks and to offering workpapers for folks promptly at the border, as a result of as soon as migrants have crossed into this nation and as soon as they’re papered and can work, they're an financial boon to any group and are price trillions of {dollars}, really, in financial improvement. Our communities could be competing for migrants quite than shutting them out, if migrants have been in a position to get to work. They not solely pay their manner, they really contribute enormously to financial improvement and to the tax base of any group.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Stein, I wished to observe up. You have been speaking earlier about Gaza. This month, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, revealed a ballot that reveals you might be forward of Kamala Harris amongst Muslim voters in key swing states, like Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin. But but the National Uncommitted Movement, which determined to not endorse any of the two major-party candidates, additionally determined to not endorse any third-party candidates. I’m questioning your response.
DR. JILL STEIN: [inaudible] American and the Muslim American group will not be merely uniform. But the CAIR polls have been fairly complete. So, uncommitted is a smaller subset of that bigger group. And it’s very clear what the sentiment of the bigger group is. They’re completely up in arms as a result of so many of their relations have been killed, you already know, individuals who have misplaced tens or scores and even tons of of relations.
It could be a easy matter for the Democrats to recoup these votes in the event that they wished to. But it’s extra vital to them to proceed the genocide in Gaza than it's to win this election. And with out the help of the Muslim vote, they won't win this election, and they can not. So, it’s of their arms. They have the energy to truly do what it could take to win again that very alienated and distraught vote, which isn't coming to the Democrats so long as they proceed to hold out this genocide. So, it’s on them. This will not be one thing they'll blame third parties on. They have misplaced that help. And the American folks and the folks of the world, you already know, deserve — deserve an choice which is definitely in keeping with the majority of American opinion, not simply Muslim opinion, however the majority of American opinion and opinion round the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Stein, earlier than you chose Butch Ware as your operating mate, a number of high-profile Palestinian and Arab rights activists mentioned they have been approached by your crew, together with Abed Ayoub, the director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Palestinian American lawyer and professor Noura Erakat. Professor Erakat tweeted, “I offered to join ticket if they would be willing to concede the election if Dems deliver on permanent ceasefire and arms embargo. The idea being using Stein’s margin in 3 swing states to compel those concessions. If we truly believe the Dems would never concede, then there is nothing to lose. It also makes clear to those eager to throw Palestinians, Arab Americans, and American Muslims under the bus that if they lose to Trump, they are the source of their own loss. The Green Party rejected this as they are accountable to their broader base and the health of their Party. I understand that but my priority in this moment is doing everything we can to end genocide by using all the leverage we have,” Professor Noura Erakat mentioned. Your response to that, Dr. Stein?
DR. JILL STEIN: Yes. Let me say that ending the genocide in Gaza will not be a fast repair. In the phrases of Frederick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will.” The Green Party is right here to proceed to exert that strain. Simply extracting a promise earlier than an election is a really precarious factor to do. The Democrats would possibly agree for a interval of every week, and then they could discover, “Oh, circumstances made us go back to continuing this war.” So, you actually don't wish to unilaterally disarm on this type of state of affairs. It could be extraordinarily ineffective.
More energy to Noura Erakat for being the powerhouse voice that she is. Some of us have been, shall we embrace, in the political sport for fairly a while and have had time to watch how these numerous methods do and don’t work. And extracting a easy concession with out — you already know, with out a everlasting assure is a really dangerous proposition, particularly as a result of, as an impartial third social gathering, the obstacles to gaining poll standing are so monumental that for those who merely lay down your arms and you surrender on the race, you lose your poll standing, and you lose it throughout the board, in a manner that you'll not achieve it again. By persevering with to run for workplace, we keep our poll standing, and we're in a position to proceed to use strain towards this very reckless and harmful empire, which is an issue not solely in Gaza, you already know, however all through the Middle East and round the world. We’re at the moment engaged proper now in two sizzling wars on the verge of going nuclear and one other third chilly struggle on the verge of changing into sizzling. So —
AMY GOODMAN: Let me —
DR. JILL STEIN: — you already know, it doesn’t make sense —
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you one other query.
DR. JILL STEIN: — to give up on all of it. Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m simply hurrying as a result of we don’t have that a lot time. But New York Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was requested in a current Instagram Live about voting for the Green ticket in November. This is what she mentioned.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO–CORTEZ: What I've an issue with is the proven fact that for those who’re operating for president, you’re the de facto chief of your social gathering. And first of all, belief me on this. I run as a third-party candidate in New York. I additionally run as a Working Families Party candidate along with operating as a Democrat, as a result of, belief me, I’ve been on document about my criticisms of a two-party system. So this isn't about that. But you might be the chief of your social gathering. And for those who run for years and years and years and years and years in a row and your social gathering has not grown and you don’t add metropolis council seats and you don’t add down-ballot candidates and you don’t add state electeds, that’s dangerous management. And that, to me, is what’s upsetting. … And all you do is present up as soon as each 4 years to talk to people who find themselves justifiably pissed off, however you’re simply exhibiting up as soon as each 4 years to do this, you’re not severe. You’re not — to me, it doesn't learn as genuine. It reads as predatory.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s New York Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Dr. Jill Stein, your response?
DR. JILL STEIN: So, first of all, we don’t go away between presidential elections. What goes away is the media protection. And I’m sorry, you already know, for those who’re solely tuned into mainstream media and imagine the propaganda that we go away. No, we’re right here. We are working. We are doing the work.
We have elected, really, some 1,500 native officers over the final two many years or so. We at the moment have 150 native electeds. We need to run at the nationwide stage, sadly, as a result of of the guidelines that Democrats and Republicans make. Those guidelines require us — as a way to keep our poll standing and to run as Greens at decrease ranges, we really need to run, in lots of states, at the presidential stage. So this isn’t a alternative that we have now.
Furthermore, you'll be able to’t examine Greens, that are a people-powered social gathering, below assault, above all, by the Democrats, to the Working Families Party, which is admittedly not a 3rd social gathering. It is a second poll line for Democrats, both for present Democrats or for independents on their solution to changing into Democrats. As such, they aren't below assault by the Democratic Party. And what destroys third parties — and, by the manner, the Greens are the large amongst third parties, so examine us to all different true, people-powered third parties.
We are the solely ones that handle to struggle once more and, you already know, stay for one more day to proceed the struggle. And whenever you’re combating on such a really steeply tilted taking part in discipline, it requires constructing fairly a head of steam as a way to construct help. And over the three races that I've run — and AOC is unsuitable on that: I used to be not operating each 4 years; I didn’t run final time. But it’s essential that the social gathering sustain its momentum as a way to now be acknowledged as the different to the parties of struggle and Wall Street.
So, it’s not like we’re standing nonetheless. We’re really below monumental strain, that has primarily killed all different small parties, whether or not you take a look at the Labor Party, that was launched at round the similar time that the Greens have been; the Peace and Freedom Party, which solely obtained so far as 14 poll traces throughout the nation — they’ve been overwhelmed again to only two; the socialist parties, which was on the poll throughout the nation — they’ve been overwhelmed again to only a metropolis council right here or there, they don't have nationwide poll standing anyplace, aside from PSL, which — Party of Socialism and Labor — and Liberation, which has it solely in California. So, true third parties that are people-powered, which don't take their marching orders from the struggle machine, from AIPAC, from Big Pharma, we have now — we play on a really completely different taking part in discipline that AOC will not be conversant in.
And I’ll simply, you already know, conclude my feedback. The nickname that my operating mate really gave to AOC is ”AOC Pelosi.” What precisely is she doing with the battles that she has gained? That’s why we’re on this race, in order that we will really serve the vital and dire wants of the American folks.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d like to herald professor Butch Ware to the dialog. Professor, are you able to inform us why you determined to hitch the Green Party and run as a vice-presidential nominee?
BUTCH WARE: Yeah. When tagged into the struggle by my sister soldier Dr. Jill Stein, it was a simple resolution to make. I had carried out an Instagram Live along with her on my social media platform. I requested Dr. Jill about reparations, after having not too long ago posted a video of Kamala Harris the place she hemmed and hawed and shucked and jived for two full minutes and then mentioned the precise phrases: “I will never do anything that only helps Black people.” So, after I requested Dr. Jill Stein about the query of reparations, she mentioned, “They behave as though it’s incalculable, but it’s been calculated many times. It’s between $10 [trillion] and $13 trillion U.S. And I am in favor of cash payments.”
When I requested Dr. Jill about her resistance to this genocide in Gaza, I mentioned that every one of my colleagues and the activists and educational communities which are Palestinian liberation not simply advocates however people who stay this, breathe this, have pores and skin in the sport and have suffered, they have been all voting for Dr. Jill Stein. So I didn’t really ask Dr. Jill about her help for Palestine. I had seen her arrested at a pro-Palestine, a free Palestine rally. I requested her about her total international coverage.
And after I requested her about her total international coverage, her response was to say that the method of the Green Party is to dismantle the American empire. And I mentioned in that interview, as a lifelong, dedicated scholar of and exponent of and trainer of the Black radical custom, “Yeah, and you better hurry up and do it quick before somebody else does it for you,” as a result of these two processes look very completely different. Pulling again these 700 army bases out of the 800 that we have now round the world that really serve no function besides to antagonize native populations, and then, you already know, slowly withdrawing from these different nonstrategic positions in ways in which preserve Americans protected, that permits you to reinvest the trillion {dollars} or, actually, $1.3 trillion, for those who take all the auxiliary prices, that at the moment are being spent on the limitless struggle machine, and it permits you to reinvest these issues in social housing, in healthcare, in fixing the roads and doing all of the issues that the American authorities might do for the American populace.
So, after I was pulled into — after I was invited into the wrestle towards imperialism, into the wrestle towards white supremacy, into the wrestle towards capitalist exploitation in my time, after having spent a lifetime instructing about this custom, writing about this custom, participating this custom at an activist stage and as a group organizer, it was a simple resolution.
And earlier than I even go any additional, I simply have to watch a second of silence for Imam Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, who was put to loss of life yesterday by this corrupt imperialist state. And we heard nothing from the Black lady who seeks to steer this nation into the subsequent part, proper? We heard nothing from the Biden-Harris regime, individuals who might not less than converse, even when there isn’t a right away federal mechanism for clemency. We have an enormous void of ethical management on this nation.
And the last item that I’ll say, by manner of introducing myself to the American folks on this explicit program, is that each effort to guard Team Blue, to guard the Democrats from dealing with accountability for the evil that their very own arms have wrought is equally evil. If you are attempting to defend them from the electoral penalties of 200,000-plus deaths in Gaza, the electoral penalties of 11 months of genocide, of rising police murders in each single 12 months since they've been in energy, in sending troops in riot gears in Democratic-controlled cities, Democratic-controlled states to crack youngsters’ heads, like they did at UCLA, like they despatched troops in riot gear to my very own campus at UCSB, then you might be half of the downside. Wake up and unplug from the propaganda machine. Everyone is fearmongering round Trump as if fascism will not be already right here. So, I've entered this struggle alongside a lifetime humanitarian, peace activist, ecological conservationist and ethical chief, Jill Stein, as a way to shake America out of its stupor. You have extra decisions than simply blue militarized fascism or purple militarized fascism. You can really vote your conscience, vote Green.
And the last item that I’ll say is that, as Dr. Jill alluded to, the Democrat Party has already misplaced the swing states of Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, ISPU, has publicly accessible knowledge, that the Democrats actually noticed earlier than I noticed it, that signifies that in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, that Joe Biden obtained 65% of the vote in 2020, and the Democrats are polling below 15% in these states now. They couldn't have gained the election with out these swing states, and they might not have gained these swing states with out Muslim voters. Those voters are gone. They should not coming again. Dead man strolling. The Democrats can't win.
And Dr. Jill and our host, Amy, have already cited the CAIR examine. But Yaqeen Institute will launch this week — and I’ve been aware of this as a result of of my long-term connections inside the Muslim group as a Black Muslim man myself — that over 53% of the Muslims that they surveyed nationwide at the moment are supporting third-party candidates, with one thing like 80% of these going to the Green Party, that the help for the Democrats in the Muslim group is at 15%, and it’s at 4% for Trump. So, this effort to attempt to pin an inevitable defeat of the Democrats upon third-party candidates or upon Muslims is at greatest disingenuous, and for these with a transparent sense of ethical integrity, it's clearly gaslighting.
AMY GOODMAN: Last query to Dr. Stein, and we simply have 30 seconds. You grew up in a Zionist family. How do you reply to those that say that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, as a Jewish presidential candidate? Just 30 seconds.
DR. JILL STEIN: Yeah. So, in short, after I hear folks equating anti-genocide, the resistance to genocide, saying that that's antisemitism, in my opinion, that's the most antisemitic factor one might probably say, to indicate that it’s anti-Jewish to oppose genocide. Zionism and Judaism are very completely different. Zionism has been controversial inside Judaism for a lot of the lifetime of Zionism. Zionism is a political ideology. It will not be Judaism. And Gaza will not be a struggle between Jews and Muslims. It is a struggle by Zionists on Jews, Muslims and Christians.
AMY GOODMAN: Jill Stein, we wish to thanks a lot for being with us, Green Party presidential candidate, and Butch Ware, Green Party vice-presidential nominee, a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Next up, Juan González on the previous, current and energy of Mexicans in Chicagoland. Stay with us.
