Here’s the deal:
If you’re a Green, voting in a purple swing state, preparing to vote for Howie Hawkins… how about asking a Dem in a safe state to vote green while you vote blue?
If you’re a Dem, voting in a safe blue state, preparing to vote for Joe Biden… how about asking a Green in a critical swing state to vote blue while you vote green?
How about we at last use the Electoral College to end the circular firing squad and get the best of both worlds
Preventing a Trump dictatorship in 2020 will ultimately hinge on how well we protect this election from stripped voter rolls, trashed ballots, armed intimidation, insider manipulation, deleted ballot images, a Supreme Court coup, and so much more.
For all that, please see our grassrootsep.org website and join our Monday zooms on how to protect this election.
Join the Trifecta of election protection campaign as a poll worker to watch the voter rolls, properly approve paper ballots, make sure the ballot images are preserved and accurately counted, protect voters from armed militias, and more. ( https://youtu.be/ZzHjSEdfhI8 )
Maybe even prepare for a General Strike. ( https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/65277-rsn-is-a-general-strike-the-answer-to-a-trump-coup )
But this “evil of two lessers” fight dates back at least to 1896. It wastes all our time and saps our strength. It must end.
The statement by Howie Hawkins of the Green Party on this is here: https://freepress.org/article/green-vote-anti-trump-vote-too
An endorsement by Noam Chomsky of voting for Biden this year is here: https://the.ink/p/noam-chomsky-wants-you-to-vote-for .
Both are on target.
The realities of fighting fascism this year mean that Joe Biden must beat Donald Trump.
The realties of protecting an election to make that happen mean we need a sustainable Green Party.
Recent history has made one critical reality all-too-clear: we cannot rely on the Democratic Party to fight a stolen election. For that, we absolutely need a viable Green Party.
In Florida 2000, Al Gore “lost” the presidency in an election stolen innumerable ways, but primarily with electronic vote flipping and massive disenfranchisement perpetrated by Governor Jeb Bush. Gore fought in the courts for a limited recount, but never challenged the registration roll stripping—-which plagues us to this day.
In Ohio 2004, Democratic nominee John Kerry pledged millions of dollars and hordes of attorneys to fight election theft. The presidency was clearly stolen.
Living in Columbus, we throughly briefed Kerry’s top staff on what had just happened. His VP candidate John Edwards desperately begged Kerry not to quit.
But with 250,000 votes uncounted (the official margin of Bush’s “victory” was less than 120,000) Kerry conceded at 1pm the next day….and went wind-sufing. To this day he’s done nothing to rectify the myriad means by which the Rove/Bush GOP stole that election. And many of them we must now fight again in 2020.
But in a federal lawsuit, the Greens (working with the late US Rep. John Conyers) helped prompt America’s first and only Congressional challenge to a state's Electoral College slate (Al Gore killed such a Black Caucus attempt after Florida 2000).
In 2016, Green nominee Jill Stein fought for Michigan-Wisconsin-Pennsylvania recounts that might’ve kept Trump out of the White House. Hillary Clinton wouldn’t participate. A recount in Michigan almost certainly would have flipped that state, which again this year is plagued with potentially lethal election theft problems.
Being on the ballot has given Greens legal standing to do what the Democrats cannot be counted on to do—-fight to protect the vote.
This year we face the same dilemma. We MUST maximize our power on both fronts. Biden supporters in safe states should consider voting Green while asking Green voters in swing states to vote for Biden.
If there are more elections to come in this country, the Dem/Green dichotomy is likely to carry all the way through this century as it did much of the last.
Hopefully we will someday abolish the Electoral College. Hopefully we will have a truly progressive Democratic Party. Hopefully our elections will be eventually be fair and transparent and won’t need protecting.
But until all that happens, this is what’s available to us.
Howie Hawkins is on the ballot in 30 states and running as a write-in another 17. Legal battles continue in Alaska, Nevada, Montana, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
The solid blues—-where a green vote for president won’t threaten a Biden victory—-include Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and DC.
It’s technically illegal to formally “trade” or “sell” ballots.
But Biden voters in those safe states can certainly suggest that Green swing staters go with Joe while they help Howie in the solid blues. And vice versa.
Biden votes must beat Trump in the swing states. Green votes in the safe states must empower our ability to protect this election and conduct recounts….not to mention sustain clear commitments to peace, social democracy and ecological survival the Dems aren’t (yet) willing to make. .
Facing fascism, we need to maximize the dual power of our swing/safe state supporters.
Now more than ever, political realities demand that we use the Electoral College to maximize our votes. We desperately need every one of them.
Bob was Green Party attorney for 2016 recount campaigns in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and in Ohio’s 2004 King Lincoln case, where Harvey was a plaintiff. Their Strip & Flip Disaster of America’s Stolen Elections is at www.freepress.org, along with Bob’s Fitrakis Files. Harvey’s People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure at www.solartopia.org.
