Three presidential candidates — President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Independent Robert F Kennedy Jr. — will split the “pro-war vote.” But the Green Party candidate argues she is the only anti-war candidate and has shifted her campaign to focus on America’s involvement in Israel’s ongoing attacks of Gaza. “We are the one campaign… that will end this genocide,” she proclaims.
Dr. Jill Stein is running for president as the Green Party candidate for the third time and has never garnered more than 1.1 percent of the vote (and when that happened, in 2016, Democrats bitterly blamed her for costing Hillary Clinton the presidency). But this election cycle, she believes the odds could be in her favor.
“The three of them splitting the pro-war vote, and us unifying the climate emergency vote, the health care as a human right vote, the anti-war and anti-genocide vote, the pro-labor vote,” Stein says, “we will be bringing all those voters together in a four-way race. It can be won with as little as 26 percent of the vote.”
Stein came of age during the Vietnam War and this inspired her to run for office, she says. Raised in a Jewish household, she sees parallels to the anti-war protests she witnessed then and the pro-Palestine movement today.
Stein spoke about Palestine, abortion, trans rights and more in an interview ahead of an event in St. Louis on Saturday. Also a day ahead of her flight to St. Louis Stein traveled to Cop City in Atlanta, Georgia to join protests against a police training facility that would destroy around 85 acres of the Weelaunee Forest.
While Stein claims the mainstream media is boycotting her campaign, RFT isn’t. So here’s an in-depth look at her policy priorities and thoughts on her race for President.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What would you want St. Louis to know about you and your campaign?
We are a choice. The American people are not happy about the zombie candidates that are being rammed down their throats again and are clamoring for other options and we offer that. We offer a campaign for living wages, for the right to a job, for affordable housing instead of this crisis of housing so many people are experiencing right now.
And to those who are struggling with this genocide that we're watching on our screens, on our computers, and our iPhones every day, and who are clamoring for a diplomatic solution — we are the one campaign on track to be on the ballot for all voters across the country that will end this genocide and will begin to bring some of those resources being squandered around the world right now back to address the true needs of the American people here at home.
Why have you chosen over the years to run with the Green Party?
I came of age during the Vietnam War and I was not happy with either of the parties of war and Wall Street — we call them the duopoly — that is squandering our resources overseas and embroiling us in wars that we lose over and over again while we basically destabilize. I was a person who worked in the social movements as a medical doctor. I was very focused on healthcare that meets everyday people's needs which are not met by our current healthcare system, by getting money out of politics by cleaning up our air and our environment and our water. That was the focus for me and I was not interested, to tell you the truth, in either major party.
The reason the Green Party appealed to me was because they have an agenda, which was very similar to my own, which is not bought and paid for by Wall Street and the war profiteers and the insurance companies. The Green Party does not accept corporate contributions, we don't accept corporate tax, we strongly disapprove of Super PACs and disavow them so we are a clean campaign which is by and for the people and a party which is by for the people. That is fundamentally what drew me into the Green Party.
You mentioned coming of age during the Vietnam War. What do you think of the student protests that we're seeing and the people who are trying to disrupt them?
This is a travesty that — these protests, the right to speech, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances — this is our basic First Amendment right as Americans and it is outrageous that this right is being shut down on the campuses of America. Our institutions of higher education are supposed to be the place where foreign policy is debated, but for young people now to be standing up in opposition to genocide, to be taking the position which has been taken by the World Court of Justice, and by the United Nations, how outrageous is it that young people should be prohibited from standing up on these same issues?
We very strongly salute the young people who are standing up not only for human rights and against genocide, but who are also standing up for our basic American rights. So we are intending to be fully in support and to be visiting campuses across the country in support of this very critical movement.
During the primary we saw a lot of young people voting “uncommitted” in solidarity with Palestine. What would you say to people considering that in November?
We very much believe that we must move from uncommitted to committed and we must stand up for the agenda that we want.
For the agenda for people, planet and peace, we really are the one option to be on the ballot across the country. So that will be a very important opportunity for us to stand up and demand the future and the agenda that we deserve. Being uncommitted is just a question mark. It doesn't get us where we need to go. Silence is not a political strategy. We need to be clear about what it is that we need, and to stand up and to vote for it.
What would you do in your first 100 days in office to help end the genocide?
On day one, we will pick up the phone like Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s when he instructed Menachem Begin, the leader of Israel at that time, to stop to cease and desist from bombing Lebanon and to bring his troops home.
How would your environmental policies directly impact Missourans?
Helping to restore local agriculture and to move away from industrial agriculture in the factory farms, especially in the St. Louis area. It is a boon, to everyone, to our water supplies to reduce chemical and pesticide poisoning, and so on. So, there are many immediate benefits to moving to a healthier and more sustainable system.
More and more states, including Missouri, are enacting stringent abortion bans. What would your administration do about that?
We would work to codify Roe v. Wade, which could have been done by Democrats over the past many decades when Democrats had their congressional majorities. They could have codified that decision to ensure a woman's right to choose and we will be advocating for that.
What would your campaign do to protect trans kids in red states like Missouri?
We will be standing up for trans rights as human rights. We will be insisting on civil rights legislation that is meant to ensure that the benefits of equal protection are extended to everyone and to ensure that trans kids have access to health care, simply by using the bully pulpit and insisting on equal rights and equal protections for everyone, regardless of their gender, or their gender identity, or their sexual preference, or race, or religion, simply by upholding standards of equal protection. We will certainly work to protect trans kids who are so much in the target hairs right now by this very aggressive legislation that is really dismantling trans rights and trans access to health care.
Odds are against a third-party victory. What keeps you going?
Just seeing the progress that we've made. It felt like when we started off, our first presidential race that I was involved in was in 2012, and at the time, the issues that we were proposing, they were new, they were entirely off the charts. We were ridiculed for proposing the abolition of student debt, [...] but what we have found is that our agenda has been adopted. And it's not only been adopted, but it's been enthusiastically received. And our worst fears about the Democratic and Republican parties have basically been fulfilled. So the American people really have been abandoned and thrown under the bus.
And to me, it's unbelievably exciting right now. We just saw in the primary in New York State, for example, which was held about three weeks ago, where not only was there a 12 percent uncommitted vote, there was an 83 percent stay home vote. The turnout was a mere 17 percent relative to 2020 when the election had already been decided for Biden.
It's time to raise our expectations and demand an America that's going to work for all of us. This is within our reach. If we stand up with the courage of our convictions, and there are a lot of people who are beginning to do that right now. And that makes me extremely excited every day to get up and be a part of this fight.
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