'It’s
one big happy Demo-Republican party. And let’s not fool ourselves
for a moment that Hillary has the solution. As Bernie Sanders himself
said repeatedly, the only real solution to this crisis of right-wing
extremism that Donald Trump represents—and he’s certainly not the
only one—the real solution is truly radical, progressive policies
that are represented by the Green Party.'
After our
call
to independent media for a 'counter-debate' with the US third
parties, the independent news network Democracy
Now! made a first revolutionary step to break the
US bipartisan debate monopoly.
Amy Goodman
of Democracy Now! explains again the process, in this second
presidential debate: “We spend the rest of today’s show airing
excerpts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate and give Green
Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the
same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Again, Dr. Stein
and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded
from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on
Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and
Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on
the program; only Stein took us up on the offer.”
Pay
attention to the justified puzzlement of Jill Stein at the start of
her response. Stein wants to speak about the substance of politics,
about the serious issues that concern the American people and the
world. Yet, the bipartisan puppets in this second debate, managed to
reduce further the quality of the political discussion. They started
directly to attack each-other, but their arguments were based mostly
on personal attacks, on the absence of a substantial, truly political
dialogue that would focus on specific policies to deal with specific
problems.
Compared to
the first debate in which the bipartisan candidates were restricted
to identify serious issues, without giving an idea of how they will
deal with them, this second debate proved the degree that the US
political system has been degenerated.
Stein,
however, focused on the real politics and showed once again her
qualitative superiority against the establishment candidates. She
spoke about an entire generation that is locked in debt. About Black
Lives that are struggling for safety. About millions of immigrants
that are living in fear of deportation. She also spoke about the
catastrophic wars for oil that have been held all the previous years,
but also under Obama administration. Those wars that are bankrupting
the US budget.
Key
points:
What we’re
hearing, as this debate opens, is the candidates go at it about their
personal histories, about Hillary’s emails, about Donald’s
despicable, abusive behavior and language towards women. And yes,
this is all, you know, fair terrain, but it’s shameful that this
has to be the focus of the discussion here. The American people have
very serious issues before us, and we need to get past this debate
over whether Hillary or Donald is more corrupt, who has the more
offensive history.
An entire
generation is locked in debt. Black lives are struggling for safety,
walking down the street or driving down the street. Millions of
immigrants are living in fear of deportation. Donald Trump has shown
that the Republicans are the party of hate and fearmongering, but the
Democrats are the party of deportation, detentions and night raids.
We have
wars for oil that are massively expanding, have no end. The Obama
administration is now bombing seven countries. This is bankrupting
our budget. Half of our discretionary budget is being spent on these
wars, which are not making us more safe, but rather less safe. Almost
half of your income taxes are going to this massive Defense
Department, which is not really not a Defense Department, it is an
offense department.
It was the
Clintons who dismantled Aid to Families with Dependent Children—that
is, the major social safety net—throwing over a million families
and children into poverty. The Clintons actually passed—and I mean
Bill signed, but Hillary supported—NAFTA, which sent millions of
jobs overseas, and Wall Street deregulation, leading to the economic
meltdown and, in fact, the miserable economic conditions that have
led to the rise of Donald Trump.
Whether
Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump gets into the White House—and let’s
hope neither of them do—but there needs to be a strong movement and
a strong political voice to that movement to continue fighting
against this rule by the economic and political elite that both
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump represent.
Donald Trump
made the point that he takes advantage in every way of tax deductions
and pays as little taxes as possible, and that Hillary’s donors do
that, as well. I think that statement is kind of a microcosm of a
larger dynamic here, which is that one candidate represents the
billionaire class, the other candidate represents the donors—or, I
should say, her donors represent that billionaire class. I’m the
only candidate in this race that does not take money from lobbyists,
from corporate interests, and that does not have a super PAC. So,
that liberates me to actually represent what the American people
desperately and urgently need.
Full
transcript:
We need to
hear more from Jill Stein. We need to give us an idea on how she and
the Greens will deal with the rapid hyper-automation that
increasingly contributes to the loss of more and more jobs. What
policies need to be implemented so that the new technology will be
directed to serve the many, improving their lives dramatically, not
the few, establishing a new global feudalism. Public investments on
green energy is part of the answer, but Stein should promise that the
Greens will bring a big discussion on the table about this issue, by
concentrating all the forces of labor, as well as groups of US
citizens, to expose their experiences and ideas.
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