Stein has said, we are in “a very dire situation that will be continued under both Democrats and Republicans. So we say there is no lesser evil in this race.” So I suppose that is her answer. How comes it that she so outrageously denies reality. Is she blinded by the light of her 1 percent campaign? Is she blinded by the lure of the press coverage she gets when she says such things? I don’t know. But now we have another, and I think a more honest, albeit no less disturbing answer to why from an exemplary activist who is arguably Stein’s most savvy and accomplished supporter.
You may remember Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s socialist city council member from 2010 to 2024. I won’t review her history. It suffices to say she has been a singularly successful left candidate and has been on the progressive, radical, and revolutionary side of issue after issue. She has been courageous, brilliant, and committed. One need not have liked her every move or her every allegiance to feel that she has been exemplary in numerous ways.
But according to news reports Sawant recently went from Seattle to Michigan to campaign for and with Jill Stein at a Stein Rally in Dearborn. Sawant is highly knowledgeable. She is no one’s fool. She did not say vote for Stein to express your conscience. She did not say vote for Stein to show you are radical. She did not say vote for Stein to build the Green Party. No. Sawant said, “We need to be clear about what our goals are… We are not in a position to win the White House. But we do have a real opportunity to win something historic. We could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan. And the polls show that most likely Harris cannot win the election without Michigan.” And in case that didn’t express her intent clearly enough, she added we are “fighting to defeat Harris, not just symbolically but in reality.” Michigan “is ground zero to punish Kamala Harris and defeat her…. We need to break the two-party system, and we need to begin that by breaking this election for the Democrats in Michigan.” Back in June, Trump made his oddly similar feelings about Stein known. “I like her also, Jill Stein, I like her very much.,,, You know why? She takes 100% from them.” I guess Trump could now say the same about Sawant.
== Michael Albert, "Seriously? Stein? Sawant? Suicide?" (ZNET).
