“I’m Not Here as a Spoiler . . . I am Called Into the Fight for the Struggle for Freedom in Our Time”

Rudolf “Butch” Ware, the son of my friend Christine, has accepted the invitation of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to run as her vice president.

Ever since supporting and working on the campaigns of a number of local Green Party candidates for Minneapolis City Council, Minneapolis Park Board, and Minneapolis Mayor 20+ years ago, I’ve maintained an interest in Green Party politics.

At around that same time I supported Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate Winona LaDuke. I even had an op-ed in support of the 2000 Green Party ticket published in Lavender magazine. Entitled “Fight Fear – Vote Green,” my commentary was more than an attempt to get the Minnesota LGBTQI community on board with “Nader for President.” At a deeper level, it sought to shine a light on the underlying issues of corporate domination of our political system and the duplicity of both the Republican and Democratic parties in this domination, one that continues to this day to undermine and threaten our democracy.

So given all of this, you can see why I was interested in tuning-in to the following acceptance remarks by Butch Ware, delivered last night at a Green Party Zoom gathering.





UPDATE:
Press Conference with Jill Stein and Butch Ware
– August 17, 2024.

Related Off-site Links:
Green Party Candidate Jill Stein Selects Dr. Butch Ware as Running Mate – Cassie Buchman (NewsNation, August 16, 2024).
Jill Stein Announces Muslim Convert as VP Running Mate at Online Event – Brooke Anderson (The New Arab, August 17, 2024).
Wisconsin Election Officials Keep Green Party Candidate on State’s 2024 Ballot – Brooke Anderson (Associated Press via PBS Wisconsin, August 16, 2024).
Democrats Try to Block Green Party Candidate from Presidential Ballot in Major Swing State – Aubrie Spady (Fox News, August 15, 2024).
Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein on America’s Democracy Crisis, Movement Building and Ending Israel’s War on Palestinians – Azad Essa (Middle East Eye, August 15, 2024).
Is Jill Stein’s Campaign Worth Supporting? – An Interview With Kshama Sawant – Due Dissidence (July 26, 2024)
An Interview with Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein – Rising (June 28, 2024)
Challenging the Duopoly: Jill Stein on Why She’s Running for U.S. President as Green Party Candidate – Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson (Geopolitical Economy Report, April 20, 2024).
An Exclusive Interview With Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein – Denise Lockwood (Racine County Eye, March 12, 2024).
Can the U.S. Ever Break the Two-party Binary? – Christopher Rhodes (The Huffington Post, January 26, 2024).
Support for Third U.S. Political Party Up to 63% – Jeffrey M. Joness (Gallop.com, October 4, 2023).
Do Third Parties Have a Place in the 2024 Presidential Election? – Elise Labott, Eric Loepp, and Chase Oliver (DividedWeFall.org, September 23, 2023).
Democrats Are Still Obsessed With Jill Stein. They Should Start Obsessing Over Non-voters Instead – Meagan Day (The Week, June 19, 2017).
Did Third-Party Candidates Cost Hillary Clinton the Election? – Byron Tau (The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2016).
Can They Count? – Blaming Third-Party Voters for Trump’s Win Isn’t Just Bad Politics. It’s Bad Math – Jonah Walters (Jacobin, November 29, 2016).
Looking for Someone to Blame? It’s Not Third Parties – Jill Stein (The Guardian, November 15, 2016).
Ralph Nader: The U.S. Political and Media System Is Designed to Obstruct and Silence Third-Party Candidates – Democracy Now! (May 10, 2016).


UPDATE: U.S. Elections: Why We Must Be Radical – An Interview with Professor Butch Ware – Muhammad Jalal (The Thinking Muslim, November 1, 2024).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Thoughts on Cornel West’s 2024 Presidential Run
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• Ricardo Levins Morales on the “Deepest Political Fault Line” Separating Democrats
• Marianne Williamson on the Movement for a People’s Party
• Progressive Perspectives on the Crisis in U.S. Electoral Politics
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• Hope Over Fear: Voting Green