I have never heard of Jill Stein until just a few months ago when I saw some article about her on the Lemmy homepage. Then I saw more and more articles about her. However, I don’t really know why the media is paying so much attention to her. She is just a third party candidate, right? There are other third party candidates that aren’t constantly popping up in the news. So why Jill Stein? I hear its something to do with Russia and a general sense of her goal being to take votes away from Kamala.
Funnily enough in 2016 I looked into her platform after Bernie was pushed out. And honestly I agreed with just about everything she was running on, except for one thing. She was pushing anti vax stuff and it was enough for me not to vote for her. I feel that strongly about vaccines and public health concerns.
Her intentions is not to be a spoiler, she’s not, she’s filled all the legal requirements to run for office of president and is allowed to be on the ballot. She is just getting a lot of attention in this current race because the margin is razor thin between the two main line candidates and that has people nervous Kamala could lose like Hillary did in 2016.
Personally as an independent voter that feels continually ignored by the by the right and left, third parties can be an attractive choice for some. Honestly, if the left or right want to court my vote they could produce better candidates. Let me say Kamala is a great choice, my issue is how she got there. I feel if Biden had decided to not run for reelection before election campaigning started and allowed other democrats to throw their hat in the ring it would have the appearance of a properly run election cycle for democrats. As for republicans they need to drop trump and his brand of mean spirited politics and have an honest return to the middle right vs where they are now at the far right. Anyways those are my thoughts on Jill Stein, third parties and the left and right. I already did early voting so my choice is done, if you care at all about the direction this country is going or needs to go, GO FUCKING VOTE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO VOTE!
I had that all written and had one last thought. Now I do actually think Stein could spoil NC, she is on the ballot and the person most likely to win the governor in NC also has the last name Stein. A conversation I actually had while standing in line with an aging neighbor, she has a tough time getting around and asked if I’d take her early voting when I was going absolutely not a problem. But in line looking over a sample ballot I had to explain to her that Jill Stein and Josh Stein are not related in any way. So the fact there are two Stein’s on the ballot might make it confusing for some voters. Ok enough out of me, go vote.
A party in the U.S. of any relevance that could be described as “left-wing” would be news to me.
You’ve got a corrupt conservative party and an extremely corrupt "pro"gressive(regressive?) anti-democratic party.
Third parties are never an attractive choice for anyone in a first-past-the-post voting systems with two extremely dominant parties, regardless of what any of those parties stand for. The only sensible choice is the (in your opinion) least bad option that still has a realistic chance of winning.