“WHY CAN’T THE U.S. GREEN PARTY GET TRACTION?” by Per Urlaub of University of Texas at Austin, Oct 18 2016

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FACT: Americans are tired of Republicans and Democrats and Trump & Clinton are most hated candidates in history.

FACT: Many Americans value environmental protection to stop potential disasters.

QUESTION: So why aren’t Americans embracing Jill Stein and the Greens over 3% to 5%?

FACT: Dr. Jill Stein certainly has worked hard to differentiate herself from the two major party candidates by emphasizing humanity over greed.

JILL SAID: Electing Hillary would “fan the flames of … right-wing extremism” and would lead to more Trump-type extreme right-wing candidates.

TWO REASONS WHY JILL AND THE GREEN PARTY CANNOT GET TRACTION:

#1 The American electoral system is heavily weighted against small political parties that DO NOT TAKE BRIBES IN OUR OLIGARCHY.  Oligarchy penalizes third parties in many ways with near zero media exposure, elimination from debates, and negative media articles and comments. U.S. elections are winner (from two parties) take all and so Greens have near zero chance to build a party base. The American political system offers Green Party candidates NO opportunities to experience and learn the trade of politics, so they remain activists instead of developing policy positions that would appeal to a broader audience, and this weakens their chances of winning major races even in liberal strongholds.

#2 Jill has even more extreme humanitarian positions than Bernie Sanders especially in Peace over War and refuses to compromise on that.

FACT: In European the Green Parties have evolved from activist movements in the 1960s that focused on causes including environmentalism, disarmament, nuclear power, nonviolence, reproductive rights and gender equality to a more compromised main stream set of positions. In Germany one of the first Greens elected to Germany’s Bundestag (parliament), served as the nation’s foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998-2005. In German elections are based on the percentage of voters that support them. For example, a party winning a third of the popular vote will hold roughly a third of the seats in the parliament after the election. Proportional representation makes it possible for small parties to gain a toehold and build a presence in government over time.

FACT: U.S. Greens have won only a handful of state-level races, and have never won a congressional seat.

GERMANY: During the 1980s and early 1990s, Green Party conventions in Germany were dominated by fierce infighting between moderate realists and radical fundamentalists. The Realist Greens prioritized electability over ideology and eventually they prevailed and became a ruling party. German Greens had to develop a capacity for compromise and form coalitions with center-left Social Democrats including some centrist politicians, unionists, and church representatives = Be less Activist in their approach and more acceptable to the mainstream of voters with still a left of center orientation.

GERMANY FACT: Many Green Party supporters fought compromise and some even physically attacked their realist party leaders who supported use of military force in a NATO-led campaign against Serbia in 1999. In 2002 the social democrat-green coalition was reelected and the Green Party received more votes than it had in 1998. The Green Party positions have become part of the nation’s mainstream political culture and by 2011 a center-right German government decided to accelerate the phaseout of nuclear power in response to rising public concern to transition Germany to a non-nuclear, low-carbon energy future investing in solar power, wind turbines and biomass plants.

SAD FACT #1: U.S. environmental groups started endorsing Clinton even before she had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination over Bernie Sanders.

SAD FACT #2: Sanders identifies as an environmentalist, but he refused to run as the Green Party candidate.

SAD FACT #3: A third-party ticket in the United States = NO winning route without FIXING THE SYSTEM.

GOOD FACT: Climate change, dwindling energy resources and growing human and economic costs from natural disasters will promote ecological consciousness and political change in mainstream America and the U.S. Green Party will GROW!