Bernie supporters must keep busy while we wait for the Democratic National Convention
Most Bernie Sanders supporters, myself included, hold on to a sliver of hope that Hillary Clinton is indicted or makes an enormously stupid gaffe between now and the Democratic convention next month. That being said, all we can do regarding the Democratic Party right now is wait. Wait for Wikileaks to release the Hillary Clinton emails Julian Assange has promised for months now. Wait for the Democratic Convention to come. Wait for more information to trickle out of the FBI investigation. Wait…wait…wait. But, in order to keep the energy alive, we have to keep moving. Momentum loses (kinetic) energy when allowed to slow down. We must keep working together in support of the political revolution, however it may come about.
Most of us are already aware that Dr. Jill Stein’s platform strongly resembles Bernie’s; indeed, some have already begun the migration to her campaign. She has tried numerous times this year to contact him about collaborating. At this point, she’s offering up the top slot on the Green ticket! Jill Stein is a Bernie supporter who has shown nothing but respect for and solidarity with us, deliberately overlooking legitimate policy differences (inviting heavy criticism from many in her party) in pursuit of the revolution. Just as we can be against both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, we can support both Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein.
We need to respect that Bernie is required to play party politics and remain loyal to the Democratic Party up until the convention, but we must also do everything we can to keep him aligned with the revolution by making our support for Jill, not Hill, so loud and clear that Bernie Sanders cannot avoid addressing it (and joining in). At the convention, the pressure for him to pledge his allegiance to Secretary Clinton will be immeasurable; and he has a lot to lose professionally by refusing to do so. Just today he admitted that his November vote will go, “in all likelihood, to Hillary Clinton.”I know many people are hell-bent on writing his name in if he is not the Democratic nominee, but write-in votes do not send a message; they get thrown away. And, if he Benedict Arnolds himself over to the other side to be “with her,” I fear that those betrayed write-in voters would become so demoralized that they would just stay home, or vote for Trump, which is not the answer either.
Even if Bernie does win the Democratic nomination, helping Jill Stein and the Green Party can only benefit us — she would be the best Labor Secretary this country has seen since Frances Perkins. Bickering about ticket order or which party or whose policies are better only divides us, which is exactly what the Establishment wants. We cannot wait until it’s too late to fight for her like she’s been fighting for us all along. It’s the only way to keep ourselves, and each other, proactively working to preserve the momentum needed to continue the political revolution.
Right now, the onus is on us as Bernie’s progressive support base to do what we can to make Jill Stein viable enough to attract Bernie himself. Here are some ways to keep ourselves, and each other, active, united, and innovative:
- Ballot Access is the most pressing issue currently, with many upcoming deadlines, like Illinois on June 27th. (That’s Monday!) Because the Democrats and Republicans run the Federal Elections Committee and scare 98% of us into voting for them every election, the Green Party has had a hard time meeting the threshold that allows them to remain on the ballot in each state. Volunteer, phone-bank, or work to collect signatures in states with upcoming ballot deadlines. (I hear the campaign pays living wages.)
- Polling is a catch-22 that the Commission on Presidential Debates, also run by the Democrat and Republican parties, uses to weed out non-corporate and independent candidates from the official debates. The candidates who already have the corporate money don’t end up spending it on advertising because they create headlines during the debates. Donald Trump has already received $2–3 billion dollars’ worth of free media attention, and he now polls as a candidate to beat. Without debating, Dr. Stein cannot perform as well in polls, but in order to be allowed to debate in the first place, candidates must poll at 15%, which is difficult if she’s not debating on Prime-time; and being excluded from many polls makes that impossible. She started out at 2% and has risen quickly since the Democratic primary ended — up to 7% now. (Bernie Sanders started at 2%!) When people are aware of Jill Stein’s campaign, her support rises to 38–40%, which will only go up once people realize she is a viable candidate. We must be aggressive watchdogs and make sure she’s in the polls, meaning: Contact pollsters about including her and demand a reason when she’s left out altogether. (It’s irresponsible and unethical to leave her out, but tack it up with the rest of the corruption we’ve seen.) Against the odds, we can get Dr. Stein polling at 15% so she will be allowed in the debates! (Remember when Hillary Clinton said this in 2008 and then refused on multiple occasions to debate Bernie? Jill Stein and her running mate got arrested and handcuffed to chairs for 12 hours for trying to enter a debate with Obama and Romney in October 2012 when she was on the ballot!)
- Social Media: You can quickly and unobtrusively invite all of your friends to ‘like’ her with a couple clicks — it’s a quiet invitation that they can take or leave. (And come on, we’d all appreciate some variety in between your relentless Candy Crush invites.) Find your state’s Jill Stein Facebook group. Make memes. Write about her on the Internet. Retweet her savage remarks with the hashtags #NoChillJill or #SavageStein.
- Write a Letter to the Editor: Demand that your media, local and national, cover all candidates, especially Jill Stein. CNN gave the Koch-approved Libertarian Party candidates a prime time Town Hall event. Where’s Jill’s? (#WheresJills?) Voters have a right to know our choices in a election.
- Donate if you can. Donate $27 specifically to send an unmistakable message. Every dollar you send is doubled with Federal Matching Funds, so where $45 would normally pay an employee for three hours, the campaign actually receives $90 which pays for the full day! Jill Stein, just like Bernie, refuses corporate money and even large sums of money, so without our donations, she would not stand a chance against the millions of corporate dollars that go to help the other parties.
Bernie Sanders does not want to be a “spoiler” by running independent, but he didn’t predict viable alternatives on both sides— this is becoming a four-way race, with or without Bernie. (We can also ask, “Who is spoiling for whom?”) Instead of starting a 5th ticket this late in the game, he can easily bring his supporters to the Greens and become an unstoppable force.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” -Alice Walker
None of this is to take away from the very real possibility that he become the Democratic Party’s candidate. But as I said before, we must keep ourselves active and, more importantly, we must keep each other strong. We are done being complacent with rigged elections and corporate politics.
