General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Yeah... Fuck Jill Stein. [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)An obvious place to start is one that Stein mentioned -- foreign policy. Stein is right that the U.S. has pursued a policy of domination, chiefly through military imperialism. We spend more on the military than the next several countries combined. No other nation has as many foreign military bases as we do. Since the end of World War II, no other nation has intervened militarily in as many countries as we have. Putin is indeed a ruthless murdering criminal, but he has a long way to go to catch up to the United States government in number of deaths caused.
Of course, it doesn't end there. American exceptionalism includes our income inequality, our health care system, the prevalence of guns, and other domestic issues.
Saying these things doesn't make me a tool of Putin.
This country has real problems that should be addressed. Dr. Stein's chief mistake is not in her diagnosis, but in her prescription. She wants to address the problems through the mechanism of a third (or, more precisely, fourth) party, which has a clear track record of being ineffective and even of doing more harm than good.
There are plenty of us who have never voted Green in our lives who agree with much of what she says. That points to a real danger here. To focus on vilifying Stein personally is to risk throwing out the baby (policy issues) with the bathwater. You can say "Fuck Jill Stein" all you want but she does not possess reverse infallibility.