“The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly

“We are going to galvanize
all of those forces that are disaffected
with this corrupt corporate duopoly
that comes in blue or red flavors.”

– Butch Ware
February 5, 2025

Butch Ware, who was Jill Stein’s vice presidential running mate on the 2024 Green Party presidential ticket, recently announced that he is running as a Green Party candidate for Governor of California.

Last Wednesday Butch was a guest on Sabrina Salvati’s podcast Sabby Sabs. Their 30-minute conversation is well worth checking out (below) as it includes Butch’s insightful analysis of the Democratic Party and why it cannot be relied upon to counter the authoritarianism of Donald Trump.

“The moment is ripe,” says Butch, “for a genuine populist progressive alternative . . . because we know that the corporate [Republican/Democrat] duopoly is not serving the people. So we’re going to have to build something that will.”

Continues Butch:

The Democrats are going the way of the Whig Party. . . . They are never going to get up from what they have done to themselves in this last election cycle and in the 30 years that preceeded that. The corporate sell-off of this party – from Bill Clinton to now Kamala Harris – has put the final nails in the coffin of this party. And if you look and zoom out objectively, you see a party that is in utter shambles. It has no capacity to reassemble the base that has departed it.

And so if we show strength and present a true oppositional alternative, you are going to watch people move to a new party. And that’s what I’m trying to facilitate.

. . . We are going to run to win in the state of California, yes. But we are also going to galvanize all of those forces that are disaffected with this corrupt corporate duopoly that comes in blue or red flavors. And we are going to build a [national] movement because you don’t have to be a resident of California to donate or to volunteer to help build this strength. And the more strength we show in this 2026 electoral cycle, the more damage we’re capable of inflicting [on the duopoly] in 2028 and 2032.

So instead of talking about it, be about it. Put your money where your mouth is and help us win in the state of California.

Above: With Butch Ware in Minneapolis – October 14, 2024.
For The Wild Reed’s coverage of Dr. Ware’s September 8, 2024
meet-and-greet event in Minneapolis, click here.

Related Off-site Links:
Butch Ware for Governor – Official campaign website.
Where the Ultra-Competitive 2026 California Gubernatorial Race Currently Stands – Evan Symon (California Globe, November 19, 2024).
Butch Ware, Former Green Party VP Nominee, Announces Next Run for Office – David Doonan (GP.org, November 12, 2024).
Democrats Have “No Hope” of Winning Election Warns Green Party VP Candidate Butch Ware – System Update with Glenn Greenwald (September 20, 2024).
Green Party VP Candidate Butch Ware Talks 2024 Race, 2026 Gubernatorial Bid, and More – Marc Lamont Hill (Night School, September 19, 2024).


UPDATE: Butch Ware: “Democrats Are Never Coming Back After Genocide Support” – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, February 13, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• Jill Stein in the Twin Cities
• Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”: Butch Ware on the Gaza Genocide
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler . . . I am Called Into the Fight for the Struggle for Freedom in Our Time”
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• “Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election