It Isn't About Third Parties: It's About Jill Stein

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Was Right to Call Her 'Predatory' in Viral Video

Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

In a video posted on Instagram Live over the Labor Day Weekend, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC),came out swinging against current Green Party candidate,  Jill Stein  first by posing the question of how to tell Jill Stein voters that they are wasting their time and efforts.  Following up the the question, she blasted Dr. Jill Stein by calling her a predator.  

She’s right.  

Now, I have my own issues with AOC.  But, that does not detract from the fact that she was absolutely spot on in the now viral video.  The New York Democrat highlighted that Stein has done almost nothing for her party.  You don’t have to approve of the Congresswoman, or the Democratic Party to see that there is plenty of data to back up this claim.  

Full disclosure: I have always disliked Jill Stein.  She is at best an opportunist and a fraud.  At worst, she is an agent of disruption with no serious intention for political office, whose only goal is to sow dissension in an already divided American political landscape.  I say this because after running as many times as she has, for as many years and different offices that she has, you would imagine that she would have at least a little political clout and capital within the system.  She doesn’t. That is completely because she does not care. 

She doesn't care about the Green Party, and she doesn't care about putting in the work that a campaign or being the figurehead of a political party demands. 

But, don’t just take my opinion at face value. The facts support it.

Ocasio-Cortez claims that there has been no movement in her party in the twelve consecutive years Stein has run for president.  It’s actually worse than simply the lack of growth. 

(I would be remiss, if I didn’t point out that this is factually wrong. Stein did not run in 2020. She did however, mount her first presidential attempt in 2012. Technically, it has been twelve years since her first presidential race. I like facts, and AOC got this one wrong.)

The intent of what she said is still accurate.

When Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, she continued to champion the Democrats. She campaigned with candidates.  She gave interviews.  She attempted, as best as she could to prop her party up.  Whatever we may think the motives were, Hillary continues to put in work for her party long after the election was lost. 

There has never been any effort on the part of Jill Stein to do the same.  She loses the election, and then we do not hear a word about her, until she decides to run again. 

AOC claims that there has been no growth in the Green Party since Jill Stein came to the forefront to run a national campaign in 2012.  She is correct.  In fact, not only has there been no growth, they have actually declined in membership.  At the height of membership in 2004, the Green Party had 319,000 members.  Today, they have less than 250,000 members.  

This is, as Ocasio-Cortez stated, “bad leadership”.  

But, is that the same as predatory? I believe that it is. 

It isn’t solely that she pops up during important elections and takes votes away from the main party candidates.  But rather, it’s that she actively participates in the theft of unpaid labor by being unwilling or unable to mount a serious campaign. 

In fact, a simple Google search shows no national media interviews, with the exception of C-Span.  (Google was used solely because of its simplicity, not for accuracy of results. Most average people would use Google, so the results that are generated there are important for this purpose). 

Looking at her web-site she has one campaign event listed.  One.  Not one in the next week.  She has one campaign stop listed.  There is also the issue of fundraising.  While the Democrats are raising the equivalent of $11.50 per registered member; the Republicans are raising the equivalent of $7.50 per registered member.  The Green Party, however, is raising a mere .40 cents per registered member. 

Yes, the two major parties will always out raise the independent parties,but the discrepancy between the amount of money per registered member is shocking.  If a party is running a candidate who is actively campaigning, we should not expect to see such a wide gap in per member fundraising. 

With very few campaign stops, no national news presence, and no real effort to support the Green Party down ballot candidates, this just isn’t an actual campaign in any sense of the word.  

Ross Perot, who garnered 18% of the vote in 1992, ran a campaign.  And there is a lesson to be learned there, specifically.  Perot was active in politics and business long before he ran his campaign against Clinton and Bush. He was active in the POW/MIA movement.  And began being active in diplomacy as early as 1969. 

 But more importantly, he was everywhere. This was one of the first elections that I clearly  remember in my lifetime.  He was a fixture on television news programs and was actively on the road to meet with voters through the entire election cycle.  

Stein, by contrast, has only made herself visible at the protest du jour in the years she has chosen to be politically active.  Other than that, she is nowhere to be seen. 

Jill Stein’s reply to the video was telling. While other candidates were proudly promoting their Labor Day speeches, Stein was busy on X (formerly Twitter) attacking the video. In a tweet, she cites that 3rd party candidates are routinely left out of debates or that the two major parties sue to remove them from the ballot.  There are very few cases on record, at least that I could find at the state or local levels that do not involve a technicality of election law or an outright blatant violation.  

Meaning, the candidates are often taken off the ballot, because they failed to comply with an aspect of election law.  

Presidential elections are a little different. I would not be honest if I said that the two major parties did not engage in tactics to limit a third party candidate's exposure.   In Wisconsin, the state Democratic Party attempted to remove Jill Stein from the ballot based on a small section of state law, which quite frankly, was a stretch.  The state Supreme Court ultimately refused to hear the case, meaning Stein would remain on the ballot. So there is a hint of truth to Stein’s claims here.  But, you have to squint to see it in most cases. 

Yet, that isn’t the interesting part of her statement.  The interesting part is where she accuses AOC of calling the Green Party ‘predatory’; shifting the focus away from her own actions, or lack of, and trying to garner outrage over an insult to the party itself.  It is entirely fabricated.  AOC called Stein predatory.  Not the party.  And Stein’s response is just another example of that.  Preying on the emotions of those who truly believe in the cause to shield herself from the well deserved criticism leveled at her.

Like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, I take zero issue with the concept of third parties.  I never have and I never will.  I have considered voting for a third party myself on more than one occasion for president, and have proudly done so in down ballot races. I believe they should have a more predominant place in the political landscape.  But, unlike Jill Stein, I know that you have to start from the ground up.  

In the midterm elections in 2022,  there were over 1000 seats at the local level that were uncontested. That means there was no one to oppose the candidate at all. This does not include all the elections that had candidates from the two major parties, but not a third. That number is in the tens of thousands.   To date the Green Party has won no major seats at the federal level.  They have won no districts at the state level either in any of the 50 states.  Under the leadership of Jill Stein, there is arguably no attempt to rectify that for the members of her party, and virtually no support for current or future candidates.

The bottom line is that even if we take away the fact that Jill Stein not only does not have the qualifications to be president; we can still see she doesn’t have the qualifications or desire to run a political campaign.  

Some may argue that money may be a factor in her ability to run a traditional campaign.  However, press appearances are free.  Social media is free.  Looking at her social media, Jill Stein has only amassed 61.2k followers on Tik Tok and 363.8k on X (formally known as Twitter), compared against another long shot third party candidate, Cornel West,the difference is immense. West has 1 million followers on X.  I was unable to find an official Tik Tok for his campaign.  He has made several press appearances, including CNN in April of this year.

She isn’t being silenced. The Dems aren’t keeping her off social media.  They aren’t keeping her off the newscasts.  She just isn’t doing the work.

The best thing the Green Party can do, not just in future elections, but for their survival, is to run from Jill Stein and never look back.  They need to find candidates, who will not just further their own agenda, but that of the party.  They need a candidate who will not prey upon and exploit the unpaid labor of well meaning volunteers, so they can feel important once every four years.  

The best thing we can do, if we are truly tired of the two party system, is demand candidates on the outside of that system do the work.  We need to demand the hard work of coalition building, in an effort to gain the political capital needed for systemic change.  We need to demand that the candidates work for those facing down ballot races as well.

We cannot continue to lament the two party system, while not holding third party candidates accountable for the continuous loss of footing or decline in membership independent parties continue to endure.  

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was right to call out Jill Stein publicly, and to do so with the language she chose to use in her video.

We all want change when it comes to our political system.  But, we shouldn’t pin our hopes on a career predator, who refuses to take accountability for her own failures in order to create that change.

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As always, thank you for reading! — Courtney