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The problem with writing in Bernie
Will write-in presidential ballots for Bernie Sanders be counted or reported? Only in a few states unless Sanders files declarations of write-in candidacy, including lists of electors, and Bernie Sanders has stated throughout his campaign that he will not do so.
Listen now:
Transcript available at http://www.anngarrison.com/audio/2016/06/18/636/the-problem-with-writing-in-bernie
Will write-in presidential ballots for Bernie Sanders be counted or reported?
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Loula Acamu: Voters have expressed widespread disaffection with Democrats, Republicans and their likely nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, throughout this presidential election year. Some Bernie Sanders supporters have declared that they will cast a write-in ballot for Bernie if he does not win the Democratic Party nomination. KPFA’s Ann Garrison spoke with Richard Winger, author of Ballot Access News, about the work that would have to be done to ensure that write-in ballots are actually counted.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Richard, first I want to let listeners know that you’re this country’s expert on third party ballot access. Whenever I’ve asked anyone else a difficult question about ballot access laws or ballot access history, the answer is always “Ask Richard Winger.” How long have you been publishing Ballot Access News?
Richard Winger: Thirty-one years, but I've been interested in this ballot access problem for 50 years. I'm 72 and I got interested when I was in college in Berkeley.
KPFA: OK, there seem to be a lot of frustrated Bernie Sanders supporters imagining that they can simply write in Bernie Sanders and have their vote counted. Could you explain the problem with this?
RW: Well, every state writes its own election rules even for federal elections, and most states do permit write-ins, but they will only count write-ins for write-in candidates who filed a declaration of write-in candidacy. And I'm pretty sure that Bernie Sanders is never going to file as a declared write-in candidate for the general election because that would be considered very hostile to the Democratic Party. So the way it stands now, in almost all states . . . people who write in Bernie Sanders in November . . . those votes will never ever be counted. No one will ever know about them, although there are about six states where they would be counted.
However, if people are determined that the tally be made of how many people write-in Bernie Sanders in November, there is something people can do even assuming Bernie Sanders won't file as a declared write-in. Some other person named Bernie Sanders could do that, and so they'd have to count 'em.
KPFA: OK, but dubious as it is that the real Bernie Sanders would encourage this kind of political theatre, how high are the barriers to registering as a write-in? What do you have to do in the various states? Do you have to file petitions or pay fees?
RW: There's only one state that requires a petition. That's North Carolina. They force a declared write-in candidate to file a petition of 500 signatures. And I think there's one or two states that would require a fee, although there are several courts that have held it's unconstitutional to force write-in candidates to pay a filing fee. And even in the few states that have it, it's a small amount of money.
It's mainly all the work, because the bulk of the work means finding slates of presidential elector candidates because they have to be part of the filing.
KPFA: So Bernie Sanders, or any other candidate who wanted to be a write in, couldn't just file to run as a write-in. They'd have to file a list of electors, right?
RW: That's exactly right and the reason for that is, under our Constitution, in November, people think they're voting for president, but they're not. They're voting for candidates for presidential elector. And the people who win those elections, they then pick the president in December. You're right; we have to line up slates of presidential electors.
KPFA: So it's not a simple process. Just, for example, how large a list of electors needs to be filed in California?
RW: Well, of course California's the most populous state. We have 55 electoral votes. Every one of those 55 people has to file a declaration of candidacy and it has to be notarized, which is really really silly, but that's the State of California for you.
KPFA: And that was Richard Winger, author of Ballot Access News, ballot-access.org. In Berkeley, for Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Will write-in presidential ballots for Bernie Sanders be counted or reported?
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Loula Acamu: Voters have expressed widespread disaffection with Democrats, Republicans and their likely nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, throughout this presidential election year. Some Bernie Sanders supporters have declared that they will cast a write-in ballot for Bernie if he does not win the Democratic Party nomination. KPFA’s Ann Garrison spoke with Richard Winger, author of Ballot Access News, about the work that would have to be done to ensure that write-in ballots are actually counted.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Richard, first I want to let listeners know that you’re this country’s expert on third party ballot access. Whenever I’ve asked anyone else a difficult question about ballot access laws or ballot access history, the answer is always “Ask Richard Winger.” How long have you been publishing Ballot Access News?
Richard Winger: Thirty-one years, but I've been interested in this ballot access problem for 50 years. I'm 72 and I got interested when I was in college in Berkeley.
KPFA: OK, there seem to be a lot of frustrated Bernie Sanders supporters imagining that they can simply write in Bernie Sanders and have their vote counted. Could you explain the problem with this?
RW: Well, every state writes its own election rules even for federal elections, and most states do permit write-ins, but they will only count write-ins for write-in candidates who filed a declaration of write-in candidacy. And I'm pretty sure that Bernie Sanders is never going to file as a declared write-in candidate for the general election because that would be considered very hostile to the Democratic Party. So the way it stands now, in almost all states . . . people who write in Bernie Sanders in November . . . those votes will never ever be counted. No one will ever know about them, although there are about six states where they would be counted.
However, if people are determined that the tally be made of how many people write-in Bernie Sanders in November, there is something people can do even assuming Bernie Sanders won't file as a declared write-in. Some other person named Bernie Sanders could do that, and so they'd have to count 'em.
KPFA: OK, but dubious as it is that the real Bernie Sanders would encourage this kind of political theatre, how high are the barriers to registering as a write-in? What do you have to do in the various states? Do you have to file petitions or pay fees?
RW: There's only one state that requires a petition. That's North Carolina. They force a declared write-in candidate to file a petition of 500 signatures. And I think there's one or two states that would require a fee, although there are several courts that have held it's unconstitutional to force write-in candidates to pay a filing fee. And even in the few states that have it, it's a small amount of money.
It's mainly all the work, because the bulk of the work means finding slates of presidential elector candidates because they have to be part of the filing.
KPFA: So Bernie Sanders, or any other candidate who wanted to be a write in, couldn't just file to run as a write-in. They'd have to file a list of electors, right?
RW: That's exactly right and the reason for that is, under our Constitution, in November, people think they're voting for president, but they're not. They're voting for candidates for presidential elector. And the people who win those elections, they then pick the president in December. You're right; we have to line up slates of presidential electors.
KPFA: So it's not a simple process. Just, for example, how large a list of electors needs to be filed in California?
RW: Well, of course California's the most populous state. We have 55 electoral votes. Every one of those 55 people has to file a declaration of candidacy and it has to be notarized, which is really really silly, but that's the State of California for you.
KPFA: And that was Richard Winger, author of Ballot Access News, ballot-access.org. In Berkeley, for Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.
For more information:
http://www.anngarrison.com/
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Since we have 2 excellent pro-peace, pro-labor and pro-environment parties on the ballot, Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party, why are you, a Green Party member with an excellent candidate, Jill Stein, so anxious to write in a warmonger, Bernie Sanders? Aren't you ashamed by your own admission that 32,000 Greens, 30% of the Cal Green Party, changed to Democrat or No Party Preference Democrat to vote for Sanders, and 7,000 Peace & Freedom Party members, 7% of its membership did the same thing? Sanders has repeatedly, including after June 14, stated he is supporting his fellow warmongering Democrat, Clinton, for president. YOU MUST KNOW WE CANNOT HAVE GUNS AND BUTTER. Please read the following warmongering record of Sanders, available to all, since he is a US Senator:
Racist and Pro-War Bernie Sanders Is No Socialist and No Friend of the Working Class,” 8/11/15, by Steven Argue at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/08/11/18776028.php
Democrats' Warmonger Sheepdog Bernie Sanders claims the US targeted assassination list is legal, a lie, and supports US troops in Syria. See Bernie Sanders Says US 'Kill List' Legal, Backs Troops in Syria, 4/26/16 at http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bernie-Sanders-Says-US-Kill-List-Legal-Backs-Troops-in-Syria-20160426-0017.html.
Cindy Sheehan, a Peace & Freedom Party candidate in the past, has compiled the reactionary voting record of Sanders on 2/17/16, "Confessions of a Real Socialist" with lots of links at:
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2016/02/confessions-of-real-socialist-by-cindy.html
Barry Bush has his own listing of reactionary Sanders votes at:
http://www.facebook.com/BernieBarryBush/posts/1507933992860321
See photos & article at Bernie Sanders Loves This $1 Trillion War Machine by Tim Mak, 2/8/16 at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/09/bernie-sanders-loves-this-1-trillion-war-machine.html.
The Myth of Bernie Sanders
by Thomas H. Naylor in Counterpunch 9/30/11 at
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/30/the-myth-of-bernie-sanders/ (read about his support of military contractors in Vermont)
and
Bernie Sanders Is a Russia-Bashing, Pro-Israel, Militarist Tool at
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/bernie-sanders-anti-russian-propaganda-and-vermont-socialism/ri8857
He also called Hugo Chavez, the late leader of Venezuela murdered by the CIA, a communist dictator, standard US capitalist war machine hatemongering. See
US Presidential Candidates Demean Muslims and Hugo Chavez by Steve Lendman, 9/19/15 at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/09/19/18777841.php
His support of US imperialism is outrageous and unconscionable. See
Does Bernie Sanders’ Imperialism Matter? by Shamus Cooke, 1/5/16
http://www.globalresearch.ca/does-bernie-sanders-imperialism-matter/5499541
In every presidential election where there is no Democratic incumbent, the Democrats have a sheepdog to make sure the workingclass does not vote socialist or Green and delivers votes to the Democrats, the twin war and fascism party of the Republicans, in the November general election. That is the only reason the Democrats exist: to make sure the workingclass never votes Red or Green or just does not vote at all.
The Black Agenda Report of May 6, 2015 has a good description of all of the Democrats' sheepdogs at http://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillary
The Democrat-Republicans always stage their elections since they cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Clinton is the ruling class selected new president; Sanders is the traditional Democrats’ sheepdog to make sure you vote Democrat instead of Red or Green and Republican Donald Trump, a Democrat for many years who gave thousands of dollars to the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, is the prearranged bogeyman to terrorize Americans to vote for millionaire, fascist war criminal Hillary Clinton, who like Sanders and Trump, support the encirclement of Russia, Democrat Obama-created Nazi Ukraine and the possible bombing of Russia, the biggest mineral prize of all.
ALL ABOARD THE PEACE & FREEDOM-GREEN PARTY FREEDOM TRAIN
Racist and Pro-War Bernie Sanders Is No Socialist and No Friend of the Working Class,” 8/11/15, by Steven Argue at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/08/11/18776028.php
Democrats' Warmonger Sheepdog Bernie Sanders claims the US targeted assassination list is legal, a lie, and supports US troops in Syria. See Bernie Sanders Says US 'Kill List' Legal, Backs Troops in Syria, 4/26/16 at http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bernie-Sanders-Says-US-Kill-List-Legal-Backs-Troops-in-Syria-20160426-0017.html.
Cindy Sheehan, a Peace & Freedom Party candidate in the past, has compiled the reactionary voting record of Sanders on 2/17/16, "Confessions of a Real Socialist" with lots of links at:
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2016/02/confessions-of-real-socialist-by-cindy.html
Barry Bush has his own listing of reactionary Sanders votes at:
http://www.facebook.com/BernieBarryBush/posts/1507933992860321
See photos & article at Bernie Sanders Loves This $1 Trillion War Machine by Tim Mak, 2/8/16 at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/09/bernie-sanders-loves-this-1-trillion-war-machine.html.
The Myth of Bernie Sanders
by Thomas H. Naylor in Counterpunch 9/30/11 at
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/30/the-myth-of-bernie-sanders/ (read about his support of military contractors in Vermont)
and
Bernie Sanders Is a Russia-Bashing, Pro-Israel, Militarist Tool at
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/bernie-sanders-anti-russian-propaganda-and-vermont-socialism/ri8857
He also called Hugo Chavez, the late leader of Venezuela murdered by the CIA, a communist dictator, standard US capitalist war machine hatemongering. See
US Presidential Candidates Demean Muslims and Hugo Chavez by Steve Lendman, 9/19/15 at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/09/19/18777841.php
His support of US imperialism is outrageous and unconscionable. See
Does Bernie Sanders’ Imperialism Matter? by Shamus Cooke, 1/5/16
http://www.globalresearch.ca/does-bernie-sanders-imperialism-matter/5499541
In every presidential election where there is no Democratic incumbent, the Democrats have a sheepdog to make sure the workingclass does not vote socialist or Green and delivers votes to the Democrats, the twin war and fascism party of the Republicans, in the November general election. That is the only reason the Democrats exist: to make sure the workingclass never votes Red or Green or just does not vote at all.
The Black Agenda Report of May 6, 2015 has a good description of all of the Democrats' sheepdogs at http://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillary
The Democrat-Republicans always stage their elections since they cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Clinton is the ruling class selected new president; Sanders is the traditional Democrats’ sheepdog to make sure you vote Democrat instead of Red or Green and Republican Donald Trump, a Democrat for many years who gave thousands of dollars to the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, is the prearranged bogeyman to terrorize Americans to vote for millionaire, fascist war criminal Hillary Clinton, who like Sanders and Trump, support the encirclement of Russia, Democrat Obama-created Nazi Ukraine and the possible bombing of Russia, the biggest mineral prize of all.
ALL ABOARD THE PEACE & FREEDOM-GREEN PARTY FREEDOM TRAIN
The benefit of Bernie was that by running, and apparently thinking he could run a real campaign or sheepdogging much better than anyone thought he would, he dragged 10 million people through Hillary's lies and the DNC scams and consequently, a LOT of people had their eyes opened all at once about "democracy" in the US. Many of them were first time voters.
Now they are considering alternative parties, when they previous never would have. They were trained on corruption, first hand, waiting in the lines, having their votes disappear, doing endless phone banking only to find that Hillbot's rigged the outcome.
Some have even woken up to the e-vote scam.
This is a *good* thing . . .
Now they are considering alternative parties, when they previous never would have. They were trained on corruption, first hand, waiting in the lines, having their votes disappear, doing endless phone banking only to find that Hillbot's rigged the outcome.
Some have even woken up to the e-vote scam.
This is a *good* thing . . .
If everything you claim about Bernie Sanders is true, then WHY is Jill Stein supporting a "racist, non-socialist-war-monger? Why did she recently write an open letter to Bernie to join forces with her? I am including her direct website. Are you going to attempt to tear her down, as well?
http://www.jill2016.com/stein_invites_sanders_to_cooperate_on_political_revolution
How much did you get paid for this hit-piece against Bernie, anyway? Is your Brock-funded 'Correct The Record' income paying you overtime for this? What was your assignment? Split the tickets as much as possible?
BRAVO for assuming that the masses would be so stupid to believe a word of this. Excellent!
http://www.jill2016.com/stein_invites_sanders_to_cooperate_on_political_revolution
How much did you get paid for this hit-piece against Bernie, anyway? Is your Brock-funded 'Correct The Record' income paying you overtime for this? What was your assignment? Split the tickets as much as possible?
BRAVO for assuming that the masses would be so stupid to believe a word of this. Excellent!
For more information:
http://www.jill2016.com/stein_invites_sand...
FIVE YEARS AGO, in 2011, Counterpunch blew the whistle on Bernie Sanders with the above-cited article, THE MYTH OF BERNIE SANDERS. Please read it.
In January 2015, printed on the Global Research website which you should add to your favorites in January 2016, cited above, Shamus Cooke revealed Sanders' reactionary voting record. Please read it.
In August 2015, ON THIS WEBSITE, Steve Argue reported on Sanders' pro-police state and pro-war positions, cited above. Please read it.
In September 2015, Steve Lendman, cited above, reported on Sanders' anti-Communist rants against the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Please read it.
In February 2016, Cindy Sheehan excellent research on Bernie Sanders record, WHICH YOU ALWAYS SHOULD DO OF A CANDIDATE WHO HAS A PUBLIC RECORD, and found all kinds of reactionary votes, cited above. Please read it.
In February 2016, Tim Mak reported on Sanders' war promotion record, cited above. Please read it.
For the historical perspective on Democrats' sheepdogs, and for many other things, please be sure to make the Black Agenda Report site one of your favorites and read the article cited above.
As to waking Americans up to the reality that the United States is now and always has been a fascist, racist warmongering capitalist dictatorship, we do that everyday and we do not get paid for this. All of the articles cited above were voluntary. The problem is going beyond waking up. For those of us who can at least remember 56 years of elections in this backward country, we wonder when Americans will move forward. After all, we are now faced with WW3 with Russia, which encirclement Sanders, Clinton and Trump all support. Russia is the other leading nuclear power and an advanced industrial society with major military capabilities.
Sanders was not brushed aside; he is part of this year's staged Democrat-Republican presidential election with his role being the sheepdog.
Jill Stein is not a socialist and is looking for a way to increase Green Party membership. She is a medical doctor who has a few things to learn about who Sanders really is. Her statement was in April, before Sanders made his statement of supporting Clinton in November, after meeting with Obama, in June, after the California primary.
It is not the socialists and Greens who split the ticket; it is the capitalist class who run a capitalist party, the Democrats, for the SOLE PURPOSE of making sure the workingclass never votes Red (socialist) or Green, who split the socialist and Green Party tickets. We suffered a tremendous loss in membership from the Warmonger Sanders' Sheepdog campaign.
There is no Santa Claus and there is no excuse for not doing your homework. On the electoral front, you organize people to vote their conscience for the parties whose platform you agree with. The Democrat-Republicans both PROUDLY support blood for oil wars abroad and the police state at home, making them the twin parties of war and fascism. For Sanders to state, throughout the campaign, the he supports any Democrat in the November election and will work for Clinton, is to confirm LOUDLY AND CLEARLY that he is utterly reactionary.
In January 2015, printed on the Global Research website which you should add to your favorites in January 2016, cited above, Shamus Cooke revealed Sanders' reactionary voting record. Please read it.
In August 2015, ON THIS WEBSITE, Steve Argue reported on Sanders' pro-police state and pro-war positions, cited above. Please read it.
In September 2015, Steve Lendman, cited above, reported on Sanders' anti-Communist rants against the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Please read it.
In February 2016, Cindy Sheehan excellent research on Bernie Sanders record, WHICH YOU ALWAYS SHOULD DO OF A CANDIDATE WHO HAS A PUBLIC RECORD, and found all kinds of reactionary votes, cited above. Please read it.
In February 2016, Tim Mak reported on Sanders' war promotion record, cited above. Please read it.
For the historical perspective on Democrats' sheepdogs, and for many other things, please be sure to make the Black Agenda Report site one of your favorites and read the article cited above.
As to waking Americans up to the reality that the United States is now and always has been a fascist, racist warmongering capitalist dictatorship, we do that everyday and we do not get paid for this. All of the articles cited above were voluntary. The problem is going beyond waking up. For those of us who can at least remember 56 years of elections in this backward country, we wonder when Americans will move forward. After all, we are now faced with WW3 with Russia, which encirclement Sanders, Clinton and Trump all support. Russia is the other leading nuclear power and an advanced industrial society with major military capabilities.
Sanders was not brushed aside; he is part of this year's staged Democrat-Republican presidential election with his role being the sheepdog.
Jill Stein is not a socialist and is looking for a way to increase Green Party membership. She is a medical doctor who has a few things to learn about who Sanders really is. Her statement was in April, before Sanders made his statement of supporting Clinton in November, after meeting with Obama, in June, after the California primary.
It is not the socialists and Greens who split the ticket; it is the capitalist class who run a capitalist party, the Democrats, for the SOLE PURPOSE of making sure the workingclass never votes Red (socialist) or Green, who split the socialist and Green Party tickets. We suffered a tremendous loss in membership from the Warmonger Sanders' Sheepdog campaign.
There is no Santa Claus and there is no excuse for not doing your homework. On the electoral front, you organize people to vote their conscience for the parties whose platform you agree with. The Democrat-Republicans both PROUDLY support blood for oil wars abroad and the police state at home, making them the twin parties of war and fascism. For Sanders to state, throughout the campaign, the he supports any Democrat in the November election and will work for Clinton, is to confirm LOUDLY AND CLEARLY that he is utterly reactionary.
I'm a registered Green and I voted for Jill Stein in the primary, as I will in the general. However I wrote this to clarify a ballot access issue, not to say that there were no other problems with supporting Bernie Sanders.
For more information:
http://anngarrison.com/
I suspect that you are responding to the last commenter. I did not produce my KPFA News report to editorialize for or against Bernie, but to explain that writing in Bernie will, in most states, mean casting a ballot that will never be counted or reported.
For more information:
http://anngarrison.com/
Fellow worker;
You say, "On the electoral front, you organize people to vote their conscience for the parties whose platform you agree with," but that is not always possible. I may view history in a rather Marxist way, but I don't trust any state to remain perfect and pure forever, so am really more of a syndicalist, who wants no government which is too big to be brought down by a general strike. Some leftists laugh at the idea that a real revolution would ever be allowed to occur at the ballot box, without massive social change preceding it. I'll still vote, because there's no good argument against doing so, but I don't expect any candidate to exactly represent my point of view on all topics, nor do I expect that anyone I vote for will win.
Let's boil it down to one issue: left versus right. If you think that neoliberalism (and ultimately, capitalism) drives most of what's wrong in the world, then we are on the same side, but we're at a major disadvantage. Neoliberalism is the ideal platform for any candidate who wants to sell out, and when you have a campaign season which never ends, and absurdly expensive races which are won over 90% of the time by the best funded candidate, graft usually triumphs. We cannot expect peace, social justice, or a healthy environment until it's been overthrown, but it's now entrenched, and defending itself very vigorously. I think we've reached a point of crisis, where immediate change is needed to allow for any future which does not quickly grow into a dystopian nightmare, and end in extinction.
For that reason, I send money to the Democratic Socialists, pay my IWW dues, voted for Sanders in the Dem primary before registering as Green, and contributed to campaigns for Dems who are at the very leftmost of the party, as well as to Greens. I don't think the left has the luxury of being fragmented any more, and think that trying to play ideological purity police is exactly the wrong thing to do. I don't 100% agree with any party, candidate or cause that I help, but am comfortable with what the aggregate represent, and really hope that they will work synergistically together, rather than waste the little time we have left. Attacking each other, rather than unifying against the common enemy, must be the left's most unfortunate and self-defeating tradition.
The Green Party reps I've talked to share my view that, now that the primaries are over, membership will rebound, and more. I'm sure the same applies to Peace and Freedom and other parties on the left, once it fully sinks in that the alternatives are a crazy guy and a stridently hawkish neoliberal. I think the Dems are just trying to get their old party back, that Bill Clinton hijacked from them, and I wish the Sanders-Warren camp the very best of luck in doing so, even if I'm no longer willing to belong to their party. As politicians, they certainly have their warts, but Wall Street hates and fears them, and Sanders has earned my respect by making Zionists squirm and neoliberals foam at the mouth. I welcome the prospect of a big coalition of the left, where we can dump plutocracy first, and then argue about the details.
So please knock off the divisive crap. The Green Party's socialist platform will be ratified at the convention in August, so calling Stein "not a socialist" is disingenuous, as is attacking Ann Garrison for being "anxious to write in a warmonger, Bernie Sanders," when Ann's coverage did the opposite of that, by pointing out its futility. Every "Bernie or bust" voter who pledged to either write him in, or vote Stein, upon encountering that interview, will now vote for Stein, and have their vote count. And for all your wailing about how hawkish Sanders is, compared to any US president in living memory, he doesn't look hawkish at all. It's also ridiculously pointless to attack him, because he's just the senator from Vermont. Instead, try railing against the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, because that IS what's on the menu.
You say, "On the electoral front, you organize people to vote their conscience for the parties whose platform you agree with," but that is not always possible. I may view history in a rather Marxist way, but I don't trust any state to remain perfect and pure forever, so am really more of a syndicalist, who wants no government which is too big to be brought down by a general strike. Some leftists laugh at the idea that a real revolution would ever be allowed to occur at the ballot box, without massive social change preceding it. I'll still vote, because there's no good argument against doing so, but I don't expect any candidate to exactly represent my point of view on all topics, nor do I expect that anyone I vote for will win.
Let's boil it down to one issue: left versus right. If you think that neoliberalism (and ultimately, capitalism) drives most of what's wrong in the world, then we are on the same side, but we're at a major disadvantage. Neoliberalism is the ideal platform for any candidate who wants to sell out, and when you have a campaign season which never ends, and absurdly expensive races which are won over 90% of the time by the best funded candidate, graft usually triumphs. We cannot expect peace, social justice, or a healthy environment until it's been overthrown, but it's now entrenched, and defending itself very vigorously. I think we've reached a point of crisis, where immediate change is needed to allow for any future which does not quickly grow into a dystopian nightmare, and end in extinction.
For that reason, I send money to the Democratic Socialists, pay my IWW dues, voted for Sanders in the Dem primary before registering as Green, and contributed to campaigns for Dems who are at the very leftmost of the party, as well as to Greens. I don't think the left has the luxury of being fragmented any more, and think that trying to play ideological purity police is exactly the wrong thing to do. I don't 100% agree with any party, candidate or cause that I help, but am comfortable with what the aggregate represent, and really hope that they will work synergistically together, rather than waste the little time we have left. Attacking each other, rather than unifying against the common enemy, must be the left's most unfortunate and self-defeating tradition.
The Green Party reps I've talked to share my view that, now that the primaries are over, membership will rebound, and more. I'm sure the same applies to Peace and Freedom and other parties on the left, once it fully sinks in that the alternatives are a crazy guy and a stridently hawkish neoliberal. I think the Dems are just trying to get their old party back, that Bill Clinton hijacked from them, and I wish the Sanders-Warren camp the very best of luck in doing so, even if I'm no longer willing to belong to their party. As politicians, they certainly have their warts, but Wall Street hates and fears them, and Sanders has earned my respect by making Zionists squirm and neoliberals foam at the mouth. I welcome the prospect of a big coalition of the left, where we can dump plutocracy first, and then argue about the details.
So please knock off the divisive crap. The Green Party's socialist platform will be ratified at the convention in August, so calling Stein "not a socialist" is disingenuous, as is attacking Ann Garrison for being "anxious to write in a warmonger, Bernie Sanders," when Ann's coverage did the opposite of that, by pointing out its futility. Every "Bernie or bust" voter who pledged to either write him in, or vote Stein, upon encountering that interview, will now vote for Stein, and have their vote count. And for all your wailing about how hawkish Sanders is, compared to any US president in living memory, he doesn't look hawkish at all. It's also ridiculously pointless to attack him, because he's just the senator from Vermont. Instead, try railing against the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, because that IS what's on the menu.
Here's another KPFA News report on California Greens registration and re-registration drive, which kicked off shortly after the primary: http://www.anngarrison.com/audio/2016/06/11/635/california-green-party-kicks-off-registrationre-registration-drive
For more information:
http://www.anngarrison.com/
Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard are now Officially on the California General Election ballot as Write-In Candidates.
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/general-election-november-8-2016/
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/general-election-november-8-2016/
For more information:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-e...
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