"Do they see the lethal insanity of a race to the brink of oblivion, and then over the edge? Apparently not. If they did, surely they wouldn't be racing to begin with."
― Stephen King, The Dark Tower
Disclosure: This past June, I left the Democratic Party and registered as an Independent. I have no intention of rejoining any party until the electoral process becomes more democratic and the Democrat Party itself changes its nomination process.
It's the quadrennial election, and to the surprise of nobody, Jill Stein is back and running for president. Jill has become the political mosquito whose name shows up on my sample ballot once every four years in October.
In a few weeks I'll be getting my sample ballot, and I'll open it and puzzle over some candidates who I've never heard of (and after election day will probably never hear of again).
They're the independents, squatters who managed to finagle themselves onto a state ballot, or, if they've been really resourceful, a few state ballots. They'll garner a few votes from family, friends and the hopelessly dissatisfied. For them, there is no there, there; no path to the White House, unless they book a tour. And yet, every four years a small herd of the hopeless hopefuls trot down a short trail that ends at the November precipice.
Anonymous ciphers, they're not unlike the tree that falls in the unpopulated forest.
It's the third and fourth party candidates (the Greens and Libertarians) who also fall every four years, though not always so softly. They have potential, not to rise to the presidency, but certainly to affect the outcome of the contest.
Most of the time the vainglorious third party candidates are little more than a worrisome side-show headed by a gadfly who proposes a platform consisting of some genuinely good ideas, coupled with promises hatched from a recipe comprised of one part good intention and a dump truck full of naivete, flights of fancy, ignorance of political reality, and maybe a little too much Chardonnay. More often than not, third party runs make about as much noise as a waterlogged firecracker, but there have been examples of when third party candidates turned into tripped electoral landmines.
The two most recent were Ralph Nader who, in 2000, helped by a fictitious character named hanging Chad, managed to divert enough votes from Al Gore to put George W. Bush over the top, and then in 2016, when Gary Johnson and Jill Stein pushed Donald Trump over the goal line (with a little help from James Comey).
I've heard the arguments that both Gore and, in particular, Hilary Clinton could've/should've run better campaigns but the fact remains that in both of those elections the knowingly frivolous candidates succumbed to misplaced vanity and shaped history (and not for the better).
And so here we are, less than two months away from election day 2024, and Jill Stein is back and once again she's wearing the Green jersey.
Not satisfied with having a hand in birthing the hell spawn that is Trumpism, and apparently not contrite (proud in fact, if you take Stein at her word) about bearing some responsibility for the worldwide, yes worldwide, chaos that Donald Trump has wrought, she's decided it is not in her, and more importantly, America's best interest, to just remain in shamed seclusion and sit this one out.
Yes, Jill is back. Well, why not. In 2012, Jill ran for president and was but one of the noiseless ciphers. It was in 2016 that Jill (along with Gary and James) made a name for herself. It was in that year that Jill secured her spot, or more accurately, blemish in history. So why not; another quadrennial, another go, even with the threat of Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Project 2025 and the hellscape that they promise (and oftentimes with their very words). Why not shoot for destroyer of democracy this time? Like they say, go big or go home.
What the hell, go for it Jill. Whaddya got to lose?
No comments:
Post a Comment