The Green party will be fielding at least 224 candidates against Dems and Rethugs in Nov.

[pnwmom]

It's almost like they're TRYING to act as a spoiler, splitting the progressive vote to help Trump win.

It's not mathematically possible for them to win a majority of Congress, and we don't have a parliamentary system. Every seat they take away from the Ds puts Trump's party that much closer to retaining their power.

So I can't think of any other point to them running against D's in the most important election in any of our lifetimes. Can you?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/us/politics/green-party-midterm-elections.html


The Democratic Party loomed large over the annual Green Party conference last month, but all eyes were on November, when Green leaders say they’ll field at least 224 candidates.

SNIP

Each of them is now running for Congress in a year when young liberal activists have energized the Democratic Party, which increasingly echoes Green Party goals on issues like health care and campaign finance. But the Greens want no part of the Democratic Party’s ascendant left wing: As much as they may loathe President Trump, they say several issues — including corporate donations and support for capitalism — have rendered both the Democrats and the Republican Party rotten to the core.

“Regular working people, families, are not being represented by the government in Washington right now,” said Mr. Cortes Barragan, a psychologist who is living with his parents while he pays off $40,000 in student loans. “That is because the Democratic Party followed the Republican Party in aligning itself with corporate America.”

A wave of liberal excitement has raised hopes for a “blue wave” in the midterms and empowered a new crop of progressive Democrats, like the democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But it has also paid dividends for the Green Party, whose formal endorsement of anticapitalism in 2016 helped set them apart from the Democrats and contributed to a swell of new members, many of them young people and ex-Democrats embittered by Mr. Sanders’ primary loss.

[sprinkleeninow]

1. Point? If this is true, I really just don't know anymore.

Others have said now is not the time for sea change IMO. Win the house then adjust where necessary.

What the hell are we/have we come to.

I'm all for policy tweaking, but radical stuff--??

Dammm.

[pnwmom]

8. Jill Stein took enough votes in the three critical states to cost Hillary the election.

It appears they're trying to do it again.

[sprinkleeninow]

10. I know. Wasn't being contrary or sarcastic when I asked point?

It's makes me sick inside. That night. Watching it slip away. They're pulling this crap again.

[SHRED]

2. Putin may very well fund much of this

That's what sucks.
That's what we Democrats are up against.

[BigmanPigman]

3. That didn't occur to me

but now that you mention I can definitely see that happening.

[pnwmom]

9. Of course. Remember the photo of Jill dining at the head table with Putin and Flynn?

Looking like the cat who'd swallowed the canary.

[Hortensis]

12. In addition to their own donations and other assistance

(conservative media, for instance), our own right wing also made unlimited dark money donations to PACs from foreigners legal, so it would be very easy to channel money to third-party candidates that way alone. My best guess is most support might be by promoting candidates through their social media machines, though.

[dalton99a]

4. +1

[Cha]

7. Of course.. no doubt in my mind.

[uponit7771]

31. +1

[Hekate]

5. Green? Doesn't that stand for Getting Republicans Elected Every November?

Spoilers -- that's all they are now.

[Cha]

6. Fuck you very much Green/Putin. jill stein is a LIAR.

[kysrsoze]

11. Against Republicans as well? I doubt that.

[Recursion]

13. How much of the money behind this was originally in rubles? (nt)

[Kaleva]

14. No progressive would vote Green thus the Greens cannot split the progressive vote

No one who votes Green can claim to be a progressive because their vote assists the Republicans in winning and that's about as anti-progressive an action one could take.

One may call people who vote Green radical wingers or just plain stupid but you can't call them progressives.

[pnwmom]

15. I think many Green people think they are more progressive than the rest of us,

even if they'd rather Trump win than the Democrats.

[Squinch]

17. Look in at Jackpine Radicals for a few minutes if you can stand it. I agree that no TRUE progressive

could vote green, but lots who think they're purer progressives than the rest of us do vote green.

You can't make this shit up, and you can't fix stupid.

[Hortensis]

23. Kaleva seems to be a true independent spirit.

I confess, this reasoning is beyond my capabilities, and my earnest, rather literal mind doesn't serve me well so that I just ended up feeling like I accidentally sat down to one of those pigeon games.

You know, the "don't play chess with a pigeon" advice? Because the pigeon will walk around knocking over the pieces, shit all over the board, and then strut around as if it won?

I felt as if our thoughts are on nonintersecting lines, and I'm not up to it.

"I hope you respond back because I enjoy playing."
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11054854


I do hope you are able to achieve a worthwhile exchange of thoughts about progressivism and third parties where I could not.

[octoberlib]

16. Fuck Jill Stein and her investments in

big oil and big pharma while she demands that companies and colleges divest from them. She’s a fraud and a ratfucker.

[Vinca]

18. I suspect the GOP has latched onto the Green Party as a way to split the vote.

People need to be educated about our form of government. It does not support multiple parties. When you lose, you lose. You don't get a bit of representation the way you do in countries with a parliamentary system.

[VOX]

19. To hell with the Greens, who likely cost the Democrats two presidents and probably 4 SCOTUS judges.

It's been argued back and forth, but the Greens did do damage in Florida in 2000. As for 2016, let's just say they didn't help.

The moment you saw the photo of Jill Stein sitting at a dinner table with Mike Flynn and Vlad Putin, the scent of rotting fish filled the air.

[MineralMan]

20. And each of those candidates will suck away some votes

that would otherwise have gone for a Democrat. In some cases, while not many, those votes will be enough to let the Republican end up winning. I hope those thinking about voting Green will consider that and reconsider their own votes. Outcomes remain important, and the Green Party does not have any chance of winning in the vast, vast majority of races. Why waste a vote when it might mean a win for a Republican?

[dalton99a]

21. Fuck the traitors and useful idiots. GOTV!

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Wow! THAT most be costing a helluvalotta rubles

[mcar]

24. How many of them are funded by RW PACS?

[ornotna]

25. The Green party will be fielding at least 224 candidates against Dems in Nov.

is what the title should read. They help the thugs.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

26. Fuck the Greens. My district is facing a real risk of turning red because of a Green candidate and

selfish "progressive" voters.

[CanonRay]

27. A wholly owned and funded subsidiary of the GOP

[beachbum bob]

28. Probably supported by GOP and Russian money

[JCanete]

29. Well, if the greens are actually a threat in these races, then their biggest value is getting

Democrats to recognize the appeal to a voter block and to figure out how to make sure we don't lose them to the greens.

I am quite conflicted on this issue, because I believe that 3rd parties are a part of democracy, and I'm no fan of us having what is effectively a two-party system, but I'd prefer any candidate pushing for change to do it through that two party system in lieu of some sort of run-off voting replacement of our current process....which of course almost nobody in either of the two established parties is going to champion. On the other hand, THAT would be the solution to 3rd party spoilers. Instead, 3rd parties are vilified for daring to have a voice when we could actually work towards legislation that changes our election process, and this could certainly be done on the state level.

That would do 2 things. It would make these party candidates more viable, but it would also take away any spoiler risk, so actually, the more I think about it, the more I shouldn't have any conflict with third parties. The ball is in our party's court to make an effort to change this dynamic. Maybe we should take a shot at that.

[GulfCoast66]

30. Enough with the progressive bullshit.

Those of you who call yourselves progressive, please do some reading on the history of the movement. It is not new and to Southern Liberals does have fond associations. The name is over 100 years old and many of its biggest supporters were blantent racists. Wilson, Long, Bilbo and others were progressives. You just can’t change the definition of the word because you want to. Progressives were FDRs biggest stumbling block.

And when we southerners heard progressives boo John Lewis an the Democratic Convention all of our fears were realized.

We are Democrats. Liberal Democrats if you must. That is the term we should run on.

Greens and other fringe groups. Fuck them. Anarchist at heart. If reaching to them is our goal we are lost.