originally published in the Tompkins Weekly, May 15, 2024
The timeworn tactic of voting for the lesser of two evils has led us to unutterable evil, as exemplified by the arming of, and diplomatic cover for, Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank. This war crime is only the latest in a very long series of moral outrages committed by successive Democrat and Republican regimes. The military-industrial complex requires enemies to thrive, and our bought-and-paid-for presidents are happy to oblige. Even if that means risking all in a confrontation with Russia or China.
Domestically, the human rights policies of the Trump/Biden regimes are also a stain on our conscience. Biden and Trump are engaged in a race to the bottom in the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers. Obscene, racially disproportionate mass-incarceration was largely architected by Senator Joe Biden and his friend, the segregationist Strom Thurmond. Homelessness and hopelessness are spreading unchecked. Harsh crackdowns on whistleblowers and journalists are a through-line from Obama to the present day.
Meanwhile, oil production in the US reached an all-time record high in 2023, Biden’s third year in office, as the climate catastrophe accelerates at a terrifying pace. In this context, Biden’s approvals of the Willow oil drilling project and the Mountain Valley pipeline are utter insanity.
In the economic sphere we are also in a dire situation. In Joe Biden’s America we have:
- A record number of people living in poverty (12.4%!)
- 31% of Americans report a net worth of $0 or less
- There are 653,100 homeless people (2023 figure)
- More than 25% of homeowners are ‘house poor’
- Housing costs are at record level of unaffordability
- Utility costs have skyrocketed
- Food costs have skyrocketed
- Credit card debt in the US at a record $1.13 trillion
- 41% of Americans have medical or dental debt
[citations can be found at https://billcari.freeshell.net/posts/24-04-2024/]
As we stand at the brink of World War III, climate collapse, and economic devastation we urgently need a change of direction. A Jill Stein presidency offers us that vital change. Hers is a genuine grass-roots campaign, untainted by the corporate cash that fuels and controls the omnicidal Democrat and Republican candidates.
Jill will implement a foreign policy rooted in respect for international law, human rights, diplomacy, and win-win solutions. She is not bound to the weapons industry and intends to redirect our stupendously bloated military spending towards solving the climate crisis. She will not export weapons to any country that uses them to commit war crimes and other violations of international law.
Jill’s economic advisors are the brilliant economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson. They have a vision for a radically reformed economic system that would restore our productive economy and reverse the trend of favoring the parasitic FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) which began in earnest under Reagan, was turbo-charged by Clinton, and continued to be amplified under their successors in office, leading to the grotesque income inequality we suffer from today.
We deserve better. We must break free of the learned helplessness drummed into our minds by the corporate media, who gaslight us into thinking that we have no other choice than the Democrat and Republican candidates. Are we really going to let the billionaires tell us who we are permitted to vote for? Or will we, at long last, take control of this country? After all, America voted third-party when faced with the moral crisis of slavery, and elected Abraham Lincoln. Jill can win, once we stop letting us be told that she can’t. Additionally, the four-way race that we have this cycle offers a mathematical advantage that we may have lacked in other elections, 26% of the vote could win it!
In 2020, Andrew Cuomo and the New York Assembly and Senate tripled the number of petition signatures a ’third party’ needs to collect in order to get on the ballot in the state. They also established a very brief window of six weeks in which to collect the signatures. Thus the in-aptly named Democrats created one of the most onerous barriers to democracy in the entire country. We are now in the very final days of this year’s battle for the ballot. Let me know if you can help out, by either being willing to collect signatures, or being willing to sign a petition.
Bill Carini is a manual laborer and a member of the Green Party. He can be reached at billcari@freeshell.org