I wish to draw the attention of Stamford voters to Jill Stein, the Green Party’s candidate for president of the United States and the only candidate refusing to accept corporate contributions. As a local Green candidate for this year’s Stamford Registrar of Voters, I can attest to the amazingly low public awareness of Jill Stein’s run and what she stands for as a substantial alternative to the offerings of the Democrat/Republican duopoly.
This is no surprise, as, though it is the media that we look to to inform of us of our options, it is also this same media complex which presumes to define for us what is to be expected of our current political system and what is possible.
When did we, as voting adults, lose sight that this is supposed to be OUR job?
Even a quick perusal of her site (www.jill2016.com) and numerous Youtube interviews demonstrate that Dr. Stein is a practical, solutions-, rather than fear-driven, candidate who supports her convictions consistently and at repeated cost to her personal safety and liberty, such as in defense of those losing their homes at a New York bank protest in 2012. Trump and Clinton have yet to do anything comparable.
Contrary to what we are told, the numbers are actually against the Democrats and Republicans. A recent Gallop poll shows more than half of all voters are hungry for more than the limited number of options that can constitute a choice (Stein’s multiple proposals to eliminate student debt, alone, could mobilize over 40 million college voters to decide the election).
A culture of bitterness and learned helplessness stoked by the “major” parties’ offensive and frightening antics, while the global scene stands on the cusp of nuclear war can no longer be defended by the same complaints repeated every four years of “Anybody but (fill in the blank)!”, or “I can’t wait until the election is over!”
Overcoming these issues depends on inspiring more voter participation at all levels, which is why I stand with Stein in advocacy of reforming the winner-take-all, binary approach to elections that only fosters anger, powerlessness and the apathy and misplaced blame the two-party system thrives upon.
Ranked Choice Voting encourages more participation by more of the electorate left out of the process due to gender, ethnic or economic disenfranchisement by allowing voters to choose from several candidates of various political views at once, based on order of preference, rather than on a straight win/lose basis. Portland, Maine elected its mayor in 2011 on this basis; Cincinnati elected two African-American city council members in the 1950s using RCV and the state of Illinois had it for almost 100 years following the Civil War (in fact, Abraham Lincoln was a third-party candidate). It forces candidates to become more detailed and dignified in their platforms and eliminates the “spoiler” or “lesser evil” rationales for and against candidates.
From the end of slavery and child labor, to victories in workplace rights/safety and civil liberties and more, we didn’t get this far as a society by settling for just A or B; it’s time we drew on that pride and courage to reconnect with our pluralistic heritage.
Rolf Maurer
Green Party Candidate for Registrar of Voters. City of Stamford
Co-Chair, Fairfield County Chapter
Green Party of CT
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