Jill Stein

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Persons of interest

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Jill Stein (1950–) is an American physician, troubadour, and Green Party of the United States candidate from Massachusetts. She is a perennial U.S. Presidential candidate, having run in 2012, 2016, and launching her third campaign for president on November 9, 2023.^[2] Stein commenced this third campaign citing her main priorities as being anti-war, pro-public-housing-expansion, paving the way for a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and ending what she suggested as "genocide in Gaza".^[3]

In 2016, Stein received support from certain members of the Sanders movement when he dropped out of the race to endorse Clinton,^[4] with about ten percent of Sanders voters going for Stein in the general election^[5] despite Sanders instructing his followers to fall in line and vote Democrat. When accused of spoiling Democratic Party chances in close races, Stein is apt to suggest the Democrats' extreme electoral failures in 2010 (including losing 10 governorships to Republicans) during a Congressional Democratic supermajority highlights the Democratic Party has an internal problem that far outweighs any external issues.^{[note 1]}

Personal and activist history[edit]

Stein was mostly focused on her career as a physician until she had an internal tear in her artery. After this incident, she claims she decided to devote her life to politics instead.^[6] Stein's first foray into activism was a 1990s group called Physicians for Social Responsibility. She testified at Massachusetts hearings and worked with Massachusetts political coalitions to advance environmental reform. While they had some wins, Stein noticed the wins became harder, with structural political forces stopping their advocacy. So in 1998, Stein identified money in politics being the main issue, and helped to get a Clean Elections Law passed via a Massachusetts ballot referendum in 1998.^[6]

However, the Democratic-lead legislature repealed the referendum she pushed for, souring her on Democrats for good.^[6]

Between election years, Stein goes to many protests including events such as March Against Monsanto, numerous fossil fuel protests in Boston, and UFCW union protests. Sometimes she gives speeches at said events. She's also been a speaker at several Occupy events.

Electoral history[edit]

Stein's highest elected office is a city council position in Lexington, MA. She ran for governor in 2002, losing to future presidential candidate Mitt Romney.^[7] She first ran for president under the Green banner in 2012. Her running mate was Cheri Honkala, a career activist and anti-homelessness activist.^[8]

She made her second foray as a candidate in the 2016 election. Unfortunately for her, another progressive candidate (Bernie Sanders) had made waves under the Democratic Party banner, offering a practical alternative to the Green Party. Throughout her campaign, she presented the Green Party ticket as a "Plan B for Bernie", a fallback for such voters should Sanders not make the primaries.^[9][10] Indeed, when he folded his campaign and pledged support to Clinton, Stein benefited from the newly-validated Bernie or Bust movement.

Stein, who is currently known for her blue power suits, chose activist Ajamu Baraka as her running mate (the Black and Blue ticket). Baraka is known for such insights as comparing the vigil for the Charlie Hebdo massacre to a white power rally and calling Obama an "Uncle Tom president".^[11][12]

Recount[edit]

Stein realizes the Democrats have a serious disparity between the aging leadership and their base (although she herself has reached the age of geezercore at age 74), and that a lot of idealists will "vote their conscience" once things go south for them. If the Greens ever reach 5% before the global warming catastrophe, they'll qualify for matching funds (if there are matching funds by then), and if they poll in the double digits, they could land a podium in the debates.^{[note 2]}

2024[edit]

Stein did not initially want to run in 2024, but a late conflict with the prospective nominee: Cornel West, left the Green Party scrambling for a new nominee. Stein, having run twice before and with a larger vote share than their 2020 nominee was the Green Party's eventual choice.

Stein's 2024 run for president left her in third place, with Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in fourth, Libertarian Party nominee Case Oliver in fifth, and various splinters of the Green Party in subsequent positions. Still, she underperformed her 2016 numbers, getting about 0.5% of the vote compared to 1.07% in 2016.

Political positions[edit]

Stein identifies as a democratic socialist. She has a solid reputation for social justice advocacy and activism, and her views line up with left-libertarian and environmentalist ideals. Like her party, however, Stein more often leans toward the hard-left (particularly with regard to alt-medicine and science woo). During the 2016 race, Stein controversially refused to draw a preference between Trump or Clinton, and during a separate exchange once offered that Trump would be better for world peace than Hillary Clinton while predicting during 2016 that the Democratic Party would want to enter another war with Russia.^[14]

The core tenet of her candidacy has been the "Green New Deal", a stimulus package inspired by FDR's Depression Era New Deal, that would seek to revitalize the American economy through a transition that would lead to an eco-friendly economy. It basically serves as a convenient platform to bundle all of her positions into one bill, including such provisions as the cancellation of all student debt, establishment of free communist healthcare, revoking corporate personhood and the PATRIOT Act, in addition to reduction of the U.S. military budget by 50%.^[15][7] The Green New Deal was first drafted in the UK by a separate group and after the Green Party touted it, some Democratic Party members have cosponsored modified versions, (including Kamala Harris) but 0 Democratic co-sponsors of the Green New Deal actually voted 'yes' for the Green New Deal when a floor vote was held.^[16] This was also not a one off affair. Every Senate Democrat also signed onto a Republican amendment to keep out Green New Deal proposals from working their way into the budget (S.Amdt. 3055 (Barrasso) to S.Con.Res. 14)^[17] while Democrats had a Congressional majority.

Stein has exhibited an immediate distrust of organizations put in place to approve food, medicine, vaccines etc., because she believes their findings aren't reliable. She cites no evidence to suggest their research has been tainted by "Big Pharma."^[18]

She makes a false equivalence to the 2008 bailout and the growing student debt of almost a trillion dollars. These two policies are different in the aspect that if the banks hadn't received the loans, the whole system would have tanked, leading to possibly the worst recession since the Great Depression. Not only that, she wants to do it with quantitative easing (lowering interest rates), which is not how quantitative easing works. QE didn't magically get rid of Wall Street debt, it was the $700b in loans. And those were paid back with 8.2% interest.^[19] Unless the government manages to get $1 trillion back with a similar return, then you really don't want them to forgive that debt. It's convenient for Stein to set aside the reasons for QE in 2008 and characterize it as an evil Fed policy.^[20]

Red Green Show[edit]

Stein (back of head, right) enjoying a meal with Putin and fellow-"I am not a spy" Michael Flynn in 2015 at propaganda channel RT's 10^th anniversary gala

During 2016, Stein predicted the Democratic Party would use the federal government to enter into a war with Russia. She also made the controversial claim that a Clinton presidency would lead to nuclear war with Russia.^[1][22][23] Over 8 years later and the US, under Democratic Party leadership, is now engaged in a proxy war with Russia over Ukraine. The last cold war was ended in part due to a series of nuclear nonproliferation treaties and arms control agreements. During the last decade, the number of nuclear nonproliferation treaties and arms control agreements between the US and Russia has reduced to 1 and is set to expire in 2026. This means we are now two years away from a world with no such agreements. The US National and Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, formed in 1988, has also largely been abandoned by both the US and Russia with the reduction of nuclear and arms control agreements.^[24]

She professed support for Brexit, but, upon learning what Brexit actually was, withdrew her support as quietly as she could.^[25]

On September 6, 2016, Stein was criticized by two Russian environmental activists (Evgeniya Chirikova and Nadezda Kutepova) for her lack of criticism of Vladimir Putin following Stein's meeting with him. Specifically, the activists criticized Stein's promotion of "collaborative dialogue" with Russia while not raising any serious issues with Putin such as "corruption, injustice, falsification of elections, and violation of human rights and international law" and "attacks against Russian journalists, artists, and environmentalists".^[26]

If all that wasn't damning enough, Stein contradicted her "pro-democracy" stance after the death of Fidel Castro, praising him for his "struggle for justice in the shadow of empire".^[27]

In 2018, it was revealed that Russian trolls from the Internet Research Agency boosted Stein in a campaign that largely targeted African-American voters.^[28]

Stein has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but typically has blamed the Putin-initiated invasion as being entirely NATO's fault.^[29] In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in September 2024, Stein had difficulties directly calling Vladimir Putin a war criminal, hem-hawing her responses with inconsistent (and sometimes incorrect) push-backs.^[30]

Homes guarantee through public housing expansion[edit]

Stein is basing a significant portion of her 2024 presidential run on a Homes Guarantee, or a housing guarantee made possible through at least 15 million new public housing units, and after repealing the Faircloth Amendment (signed by Bill Clinton in 1999).^[31] The Faircloth Amendment bans surpassing 1999 levels of public housing units.^[32] Stein's 2024 campaign received little to no media attention. Notably, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has sought to repeal the Faircloth amendment under the Democratic Party with little to no success so far.^[33]

Woo[edit]

As a result of slightly more people actually paying attention to what she's been saying — after Sanders' withdrawal and later endorsement of Hillary caused some of those on the far left to look to Stein as a potential "next-best" candidate — Stein has come under fire for her apparent anti-vaxxer sympathies, which she hides within (largely debunked) criticisms of corporate influence in the CDC and FDA.^[34]

Such ideas coming from a medical doctor would certainly spark concern, and debate continues over whether she is legitimately calling the validity of vaccinations into question, or just pandering to fringe groups to bolster her voter base. One point of note, however, is that despite never even remotely linking autism to vaccines, that is the angle that some outlets have taken on her stance, that she specifically thinks vaccines might cause autism. In part because of angles like that, some allege that such coverage is part of a pro-Clinton smear campaign against Stein in the mainstream liberal media, which wouldn't necessarily be that hard to believe. She would later go on record with The Young Turks at the 2016 Green Party national convention that she specifically does not believe that vaccines cause autism.^[35][36]

In addition to mandatory labeling, she has called for a moratorium on production of genetically modified foods and various pesticides. Ironically, for a proponent of clean and renewable energy, she is vehemently opposed to nuclear power,^[37] going so far as to literally equate (as in with the "=" sign) nuclear power plants to "weapons of mass destruction waiting to be detonated".^[38]

Stein warned us that WiFi signals can harm the brains of children,^[39] and doubled down in a Reddit AMA:

A number of scientific studies have raised red flags about possible health effects of WiFi radiation on young children. I do not have a personal opinion that WiFi is or isn't a health issue for children. There is not enough information to know. I do however believe in science. Scientific research should go forward and find out. Countries including Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Israel, Russia and China, have banned or restricted these technologies in schools.^[40]

As she says here, it is common knowledge that none of these countries have ever used WiFi in schools.^{Do You Believe That?}

Interactions with Truthers[edit]

Stein's 2016 running mate, Ajamu Baraka, thinks Assad is a good, democratically-elected man. He has contributed to a book that asserts, in part, that 9/11 was a CIA-Mossad conspiracy.^[41][42][43]

Oh, and Stein wants a new 9/11 investigation, although she has not declared herself to be a truther.^[44]

So that's why they call it the Green Party[edit]

Bo Gardiner documented that Stein privately invests in corporations and practices she publicly campaigns against, eschewing green funds in favor of the world's largest backer of Monsanto and global deforestation.^[45]

Videos[edit]

• Breaking News from Jill Stein
• "Can I call you DOCTOR Stein?" - PBS conspiracies? Keep on fighting the good fight, Doc.
• Don't think her supporters would appreciate the fact that she's wearing a dead animal around her neck.

External links[edit]

• Jill Stein helps elect climate-denier, regrets nothing
• You'd think this pic would have sounded an alarm for Green voters. - That's Mike Flynn, Trump's National Security Director, to her left.
• Video of Stein debating Mitt Romney and three other candidates for an hour for Massachusetts governor position

See also[edit]

• Ben "Show Me the Fossils" Carson — Smart enough to recite from a book, but no depth or intelligence beyond that.
• Beppe Grillo — A millionaire who has convinced broke college kids that he's just like them.
• Cynthia McKinney — Stein is hardly the first whackjob the Green Party put up.
• George Galloway — U.S. foreign policy is not pristine by any standard, but the tendency to blame America/Israel for everything that goes wrong is idiotic in the extreme. (The Iraq War caused the "oppose all US military action" wing to swell in numbers.)

Notes[edit]

References[edit]