this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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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.


Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

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[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 219 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Jill Stein is a russian asset

[–] Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win 139 points 1 month ago (107 children)

Supporting evidence for the 3 downvotes ATM:

Putin’s Shill Stein wants Nato disbanded, the US to give up their SC veto, and revoke weapons to help Ukraine defend itself while simultaneously forcing ‘peace’ (subjugation) negotiations with russia.

2015 Stein breaking bread with Putin, his senior staff, and Mike Flynn (later Trump's national security advisor

More context:

For those that don’t understand how the Electoral College + FPTP voting works, voting for her means helping donald become president due to the spoiler effect.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 40 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Downvotes are probably the people still livid that Tulsi failed, and who want a third party to break into this hopelessly entrenched duopoly of an election system.

Fair enough, but thinking you can fix it by yourself isn’t going to fix it, just help Trump win.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Yeah you're right. Their brainless response normally is to just shift focus away from trump as if he is irrelevant to the conversation

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[–] Zerlyna@lemmy.world 120 points 1 month ago (12 children)

I agree. The only time I hear her name is around election time. It’s too late then, the work needs to be done in between.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 82 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The way she, her party, and her campaign conduct themselves make it hard to avoid the conclusion that she’s running purely as a Democratic spoiler candidate (that is, with the intent of siphoning support away from the Democratic candidate).

Edit: to be clear, I am a staunch supporter of environmentalist causes in general. I just don’t believe the Green Party actually is an environmentalist cause at the end of the day. I judge these things by actions, not by policy documents.

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[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 42 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Especially using the name and clout to help the local races which are run more often. Get third parties well known regionally with serious candidates, you'll see demand for them grow nationally.

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[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 113 points 1 month ago (64 children)

These third party types always claim that they want to reform the system. That's bullshit. If you want to reform this system then you need to start at the bottom. You need to recruit candidates and invest in winning at local and state level first. Those are the most winnable offices for an outsider/independent. Hell, win a few critical states and you can get enough states in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact which, while not an ideal solution, would be a good first step in reforming the system.

Once you have some power and recognition at the state level, you need to aim for Congress. Start winning seats in the House and Senate and you can really start making change. That is where the real power of change resides. How many times have we seen a president with a divided House and/or Senate have their policy goals effectively neutered by legislative antagonism? Without support from the House and Senate, a 3rd party president would be powerless.

Stein cannot possibly enact positive change even if there were a literal miracle and she became president. The only thing, literally the only thing she can do by running for President is get Trump elected.

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[–] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 92 points 1 month ago

AOC is correct indeed.

[–] jhymesba@lemmy.world 81 points 1 month ago (4 children)

If Left-Wing Third Parties are serious, they will start by running their candidates as spoilers in the Democratic Primary and appealing to voters to listen and add their platforms to the list of priorities to push the Dems on. They'd simultaneously work hard to get Ranked Choice passed nation-wide as that system is the most compatible with our country's political system. Once they get that passed, they would join efforts to reform the Electoral College so it doesn't require 270 votes, an then implement a more effective voting system for President that ensures that left-wing voters don't get a Right-Wing president elected voting for Third Party options. They would also push hard to win at the City, County, and State levels, as well as in the Congress, so the Jill Steins of the world have friendly legislators to rely on.

Ocasio-Cortez is right to call this out.

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[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 81 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Well if she’s soooo unserious why would the Unicode consortium designate an emoji just for her?

🤡

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[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 49 points 1 month ago

How long has stein been campaigning and didn't know basic information about Congress.

She's either not serious, an imbecile, or porque no los dos?

That means why not both, Jill.

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Go watch her breakfast club interview. So transparent that they are pandering with hollow buzz word mention. The hosts call her out pretty well. If they are real about an issue like ranked choice voting, then I want to see you become the face of that issue publicly for the next 4 years, until it's passed into law through consensus and politicking, in a way that the green party clearly earns a place in a tangible victory.

You won't, that's not what you're being funded for, but that's what you'd do if you actually cared.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I made the mistake of voting for her in the primaries exactly once years ago as a naive teenager, and vowed never again once her "campaigning" expounded on what she actually stood for and how.

Green party... Plastic green, indeed.

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[–] BlucifersVeinyAnus@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 month ago (12 children)

Stein is a clown.

A vote for stein is a vote for trump.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's pretty much completely impossible for a third party candidate to ever win. You have to get 270 (just over half) of all the electoral votes. If any third party made a huge amount of headway it'd still be almost impossible to take enough votes from the repubs or democrats to hit 270, and anything less than 270 means the House gets to decide who becomes president. Obviously, the house filled with democrats and Republicans, would never select the third party candidate.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They dont have to win, just steal enough votes from one of the other parties to affect the election

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[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 month ago

It never was.

[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Yeah, I feel like a serious candidate for president would know how many Representatives are in the House.

[–] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

I'm commenting this a few times, but Alaska has implemented ranked choice, has a number of environmentalists and does outsized damage to the environment. If they were serious they'd run in state elections there, and four congress there. They are not.

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