Jill Stein's Controversial Campaign: Grifter or Savior?

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CREDITS:
Produced and Edited by Leeja Miller
Production Assistance, Research, and Writing by Victoria Marchiony
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[LeejaMiller]

⚡There are so many rabbit holes to go down when it comes to Jill Stein and third party candidates--what did I miss and are you still gonna vote for her?

[thomassmith]

Just wanted to say, im an ex-right winger, ex-trump supporter, and while I dont agree with you on everything, you have helped me move away from the right. Thank you

[mahoganeybennett]

Vote yes for measure 117 if you live in Oregon to allow rank choice voting. We have some great organizers working on the ground here. So when you get your ballot please vote.

[ZappBranniglenn]

"I'm not voting Harris to teach her a lesson" Buddy, Harris will be fine if Trump wins. It's the rest of us soaking in all the fallout. And we remember who brought us there the last time.

[dimetronome]

As a leftist in another country, I really do feel bad for American leftists. It's times like this that I'm grateful to be a leftist in a parliamentary democracy and not a two-party oligarchy. I couldn't even imagine having to choose between two reprehensible right-wing candidates who would be considered a conservative and a fascist in most other developed countries.

[kyguy]

Alaskans: please remember to Vote No on 2 so we can keep our Rank Choice Voting system!

[jesseweigert]

If Jill Stein was serious about ending the two party system, she would be advocating for better election methods instead of reappearing every 4 years to make a futile run for president.

[orangeofmars]

A major thing that annoys me about Jill Stein is that she is a professional presidential campaign runner. That is how she makes her money. That is her job. She really is not making any positive changes in anyone's life. It is just running for president that she does. Bottom line, she is a grifter.

[ZachariahWiedeman]

After the 2016 election, Jill Stein raised $7.3 million from hopeful Clinton voters to pay for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (under the false hope this might change the results) and claimed she was $100k short so that would come out of her own campaign's coffers. Then she failed to do the recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania and spent less than $1 million for a meaningless Wisconsin recount. The remaining $6+ million disappeared while the Stein campaign stopped filing monthly FEC reports from 2017-2018. THAT is where most of those FEC fines came from. When they did start finally report to the FEC again they claimed that all that money had been used to continue paying campaign staffers' salaries for nearly three years after the 2016 election was over. What this staff was doing to earn that salary - financed off of donations from Hillary supporters for a recount is beyond me. 🤷‍♀️ They clearly did absolutely nothing to promote any of her "causes." Explain to me how this ISN'T a massive grift.

[VulpineDemon]

Jill Stein does nothing for four years, pops up like a Spirit Halloween to take donations for campaign money, then disappears like it's November 1st after she loses.

[etep]

If the Green Party is serious, why don’t they try and grab seats at the state level, then federal? That’s more feasible than the presidency.

[DeusExMacarena]

Back in 2016 I made the mistake of voting for Stein. My rationale was that while I knew she couldn't win, the unpopularity of both Clinton & Trump could hopefully lead to America getting more serious about 3rd parties. However, both Stein & Johnson barely scraped anywhere near a decent margin of the vote, and they both just disappeared after the election was over.
Since then it's become so much more agonizingly obvious how much of a grifter Jill is and I feel like I got suckered. There's no grassroots organizing from the greens, no state or local government campaigns, just vain presidential runs every 4 years.
While Clinton was still a widely unpopular candidate, to say she would have been as bad as Trump is just factually wrong. Roe V Wade would still be the law of the land. The pandemic would not have ravaged the US nearly as badly.
Learned my lesson. Voted Biden in 2020 and Kamala this year. I can't stomach the thought of young girls in this country being at risk of growing up with even fewer rights than their grandmothers had.

[FrostPDP]

A thought: Stein refused Duke's endorsement, yes...But in 2016 she quite famously pointed out that it didn't matter if Hillary rejected endorsements she got because those bad, bad people still gave them to her. So...Yeah. :) Maybe Leeja talks about that later, but it seems she wrapped that part up, so I just wanted to say it.

[BTL_LTW]

Jill’s paid for the release of a Jan 6th rioter, and has literally received money from Russia. She’s the epitome of a grifter. This is coming from someone who wholeheartedly supports Palestine and Lebanon in their fight for existence against apartheid Israel.

[ResplendentTrash]

Also important: LOOK HOW POPULAR TRUMP IS IN ISRAEL! They love Trump in Israel! He's more popular there than here and more than Netanyahu! "Punishing" Kamala could result in awarding Israel with the US President they want!

[edwardhanson]

Jill Stein is NOT 'far left'.

[anthonymeade]

I agree that Trump is far and away worse than Kamala. But I would summarize what she said as, "The two party system sucks but I'm going to do my part to perpetuate it by continuing to vote for one of the two major parties."

[papacacto]

committing genocide should have electoral consequences, but also i want my trans loved ones to have rights and medical care. that's where we're at.

[MsJaytee]

I swear I saw leftists call Angela Davis a Zionist after she endorsed Harris.

There’s an analogy that gets used in UK politics, elections are like buses, you’re just looking for the one going closest to where you want to go, Stein and Trump’s buses go to the same place.

[whoviating]

Full disclosure: I have voted 3rd Party, I have voted for Jill Stein. I have even run for office 3trd Party. I usually vote 3rd Party if there is one on the ballot and I believe we would have a stronger democracy if everything did not always collapse into two parties.

That said, I will add that I voted for Biden in 2020 and will vote for Harris this year despite living in one of the safest blue states because I wanted and now want Donald "Tweetie-pie" Trump not merely to be defeated in the electoral vote, but to be crushed in the popular vote. I want Johnson-Goldwater levels. I want Nixon-McGovern levels. I won't get it, but I will do my tiny bit toward making it happen.

With that said, my answer to the question "grifter or savior" is "neither." No candidate is a "savior" and if it's a grift, it's a damn lame one.

Two final observations: It's become almost traditional, in the event of any close election at any level, to as election day approaches set up third parties as an excuse for losing, the better to avoid addressing your own failures. If those 3rd Party voters are important to you, address their concerns. Condescension and scolding will not help you. (As an example, even at this late date, were Harris to break with Biden on Gaza it would likely net her several points.)

And two, as a member of the Green Party I don't know that I would have voted for Stein anyway. This is her third run and I think she has become too equated with the party in the general public's mind; that is, people think "Green Party=Jill Stein=Green Party." We need new faces.