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Sunday, November 6, 2016

How Green Party's Jill Stein tells two lies at once

According to Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, anyone who actually participates in deciding who the next president of the United States will be is wasting their vote. She says this is true because she claims there are no significant difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump so it doesn't really matter which one is our next president.
Either she is blind to the realities of the world or there is a reason behind her willful deception. Her campaign slogan "Jill Not Hill" gives us a clue. She is trying to neutralize Clinton voters exclusively. She is running a pro-Trump campaign. She is protecting his Left flank.
Of course, that's not the reason she gives for running. Her main sell, the main reason she gives citizens for voting Green, other than some progressive elements in her platform, is the need to build a progressive third party in the United States. While this need has never been greater than it is today, as this election year has clearly demonstrated, the Green Party is far from that party, and this election year has also demonstrated that.
The Green Party continues to do little of the grassroots community work essential to the building of a successful third party. It continues its narrow appeal to an elite white demographic. It continues to have very shallow answers to deep questions in a politically flawed, pro-Putin platform.Yet once again it has emerged from hibernation after four years to run a spoiler candidate.
Everybody knows Jill Stein has zero chance of winning the election, so the one goals she has set for her party and the big reason she gives for asking progressives to stand down from the fight to keep the white nationalist Robert Mercer financed fascists out of the White House is that if the Green Party can get 5% of the vote, if will guarantee it a place on the ballot and millions of federal dollars in 2020.
Jill Stein put this forward as her one achievable goal, but the reality if that she has about as much chance of winning even 5% of the vote as she has of working from the Oval Office. She claims this goal is possible because they are already polling close to 5% so getting 5% of the vote should be within reach. This is based on two, shall we say "misrepresentations," that is a nicer word if size doesn't matter as it does in a tweet.

This claim is false on two grounds:

1) She has never been at 5% in the national polls. She came into the race with a solid 4% but has drifted down to about 2% 1.8% as she has gained more exposure.


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2) Her poll ratings are not reflected in actual votes. Not even close. In 2012, she was running a steady 4% in the polls, but on election day she received only 0.36% of the popular vote. In other words, more than 9 out of 10 voters who toll pollsters that they favored Jill Stein, either voted for someone else on election day or they didn't vote at all. The reason for this disparity is that while many progressives like to show their colors when talking to pollsters, they aren't really buying the Green Party line and throwing away their vote on election day. On Friday, Harvard Business Review published a report on how polls over estimate support for third-party candidates. This analysis has "Stein showing negligible levels of support from voters."
So the real "hill" that Jill needs to climb is not from 2% or 4% in the polls to a showing of 5% of the vote, but from a popular vote total of 0.36% in 2012 to over 5% in 2016. Since she isn't even doing as well in the pre-election polls this year as she did in 2012, that ain't going to happen. This is the truth that the Jill Stein campaign is trying to hide from its supporters. The truth that even if you give your vote to Jill Stein in the hopes of winning a place on the ballot for the Green Party in 2020, you are throwing you vote away.

My other recent posts relating to this unique election cycle:
Donald Trump wants to be the Last US President
Trump/Stein -- Stronger Together
Will Wikileaks "salt" the Clinton-Podesta emails before the election?
Trump Super Predator behavior is Workplace Sexual Harassment writ large
Is US Green Party's Jill Stein a holocaust denier?
Jill Stein now claiming Donald Trump is less of two evils
Did Dishonest Jill Stein change her Syria statement on the sly?
Republican support for Green Party @DrJillStein is emerging
Why "Jill not Hill" is a pro-Trump slogan
Donald Trump can only win if Jill Stein stays in
Does Donald Trump's secret plan to defeat ISIS involve using nukes?
Why doesn't "What's the Triad?" trump "What is Aleppo?"
Green Party Jill Stein's campaign in context
What should the Green Party do?
Greens could give White House to Trump as poll numbers even
Why Green Party's Jill Stein should drop her presidential bid
Amy Goodman should address this extremely important statement by her guest
How Jill Stein Tweets for Trump
HuffPost item shows how @JillStein campaign whitewashes @realDonaldTrump
Trump tells his '2nd Amendment people election will be stolen to prepare for insurrection
Trump didn't threaten Hillary, he threatened violent insurrection
Meet Green Party's Jill Stein, Putin sock-puppet & Assad apologist

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!
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1 comment:

  1. Tuesday is Green Groundhog Day.

    It emerges from hibernation every four years and checks the polls, only to find that hardly anyone is paying attention. Maybe next time, it thinks, and then goes back in for another four.

    ReplyDelete