Thursday, September 05, 2024

When Democrats Undermine Democracy

In case you missed it, there’s been a bit of a verbal dust-up recently between two prominent women of the left – Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

The video below is a segment from the Rising podcast that explains in greater detail what’s been going on. It also includes an interview with Jill Stein who responds to both AOC’s recent uninformed diatribe and the wider issue of the Democratic Party’s ongoing efforts to suppress alternative parties and thus the democratic process. Oh, and you don’t have to be a Green Party supporter to appreciate Stein’s takedown of AOC, a takedown which, in my view, has been long overdue.





Related Off-site Links and Updates:
AOC Attacks Jill Stein and the Green Party for Existing in Cringe Video – Kit Cabello (Hard Lens Media, September 2, 2024).
AOC Says Jill Stein and Third Parties are “Predators” – Larry Sharpe (The Sharpe Way, September 2, 2024).
AOC Gets Slammed by Butch Ware in Epic Video – Kit Cabello (Hard Lens Media, September 3, 2024).
Jill Stein VS AOC Escalates – Kit Cabello and Daniel Luepker (Hard Lens Media, September 4, 2024).
AOC Smears Jill Stein – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, September 4, 2024).
Jill Stein Claps Back Hard at AOC’s “Predatory” Attack: Green Party Shuts Down Democratic Hypocrisy – Marc Lamont Hill (Marc Lamont Hill Official, September 4, 2024).
Campaigning Against Genocide: An Interview with Dr. Jill Stein and Butch WareThe Chris Hedges Report (September 4, 2024).
AOC’s Bad Faith Attacks on Jill Stein – Briahna Joy Gray and Sabrina Salvati (Bad Faith, September 5, 2024).
Interview: Dr. Jill Stein on AOC’s Instagram Attack, Green Party Challenges and Victories, and More – Glenn Greenwald (System Update with Glenn Greenwald, September 10, 2024).
Greens and Jill Stein Fight Back Against AOC, Democrats, and the Media – Hard Lens Media (September 12, 2024).

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald: Democrats Are the Ultimate Establishment Party – Emily Jashinsky (UnHerd, September 10, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler . . . I am Called Into the Fight for the Struggle for Freedom in Our Time”
Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
“Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
AOC Falls in Line
Thoughts on Cornel West’s 2024 Presidential Run


2 comments:

Percy said...

The Green Party however is not a true political party. Rather, it's a vanity hobby project for progressives in love with gesturing, a self-serving habit indulged by the American Left since the early 1970s that neutered the potential political influence of the Left.

And Jill Stein is not a candidate any political party should be proud of nominating for the presidency.

An American Left that can't even fix what's wrong with the Green Party is not in anywhere near a position to fix what's wrong with our two long-dominant political parties. It's a bottom up process, not a top down process: build a party nationally that wins municipalities in all states, then build presence in state legislatures, then Congress. Et cet. It's a pyramid. It's a slog, but that's how new political parties actually become part of the *real* conversation at the table.

Michael J. Bayly said...

How about we give Jill Stein a spot on the presidential debate stage this Tuesday and let the American people decide how much of a "vanity hobby project" the Green Party and its platform is. Of course, the two corporate-backed major parties, the parties of empire and war, wouldn't dare allow such a thing as they know that the values of the Green Party, far from being "left," are actually mainstream, and would inspire and ignite people in ways that would threaten their "magicians-of-Pharoah"-like hold over the country.

And as for the "bottom-up process" you describe, Percy, it's happening as best it can but is made all the more of a "slog" by the decidedly undemocratic antics of the Democratic Party which is constantly filing petty and nit-picking lawsuits against the Greens and their ballot access successes.

Yesterday in Minneapolis I was at a meet-and-greet for Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware. Your description of the party bears no resemblance whatsoever to the people and energy I experienced at this gathering. In addition to Ware, two Green Party candidates for local races were present, and Jill Stein herself Zoom-ed in to offer thanks and encouragement to the Minnesota Green Party. No one present, myself included, found anything she said, or how she said it, to be unworthy of praise or pride.