No to Racist Bigotry, No to Corporate Oligarchy
The 2016 presidential election seems like a slow-motion train wreck. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two most unpopular major party candidates in modern history; over 60% disapprove of Trump while 56% disapprove of Clinton.
The choice between a bigoted billionaire and a corporate oligarch isn’t much of a choice at all. Many people will understandably vote for Clinton while holding their noses to stop Trump. At the same time there is a growing desire for an alternative to the rotten two-party system.
In one NBC online poll, 84% of people – more than 75,000 – said they wished Bernie Sanders was still in the race. His campaign gave a glimpse of the potential for millions of people to come together in a far-reaching “political revolution against the billionaire class.”
U.S. capitalism faces a historic crisis and it will take powerful mass movements of workers and young people to fight back against the right wing and big business. Both parties stand in our way and Bernie’s campaign showed that a new party for the 99% is possible.
In this election, the best way to register your opposition to racism and corporate politics – and for an alternative to this broken two party system – is to vote for Jill Stein, the strongest independent left-wing presidential candidate.
Stopping Trump
We can’t just “wait out the clock” until November to stop Trump. His campaign gives confidence to racists right now. We need peaceful mass demonstrations to confront Trump everywhere he goes, linked to building an ongoing movement against racism and inequality.
Polls have consistently shown that supermajorities disapprove of the hate-spewing billionaire. If the election were just a referendum on him, he would be trounced.
But this election distorts our ability to fight back. The Democrats’ alternative to Trump is Clinton, the second-most unpopular candidate in modern history. Clinton’s record of supporting free trade, the Iraq War, and Wall Street is all being exploited by Trump.
Clinton is the candidate of the establishment which has its own reasons for wanting to stop Trump: He opposes U.S. foreign policy and free trade, and his victory would unleash social and political upheaval.
The same establishment opposed Bernie Sanders, who currently has an approval rating 14 points higher than Clinton. He consistently out-performed Clinton in head-to-head polls against Trump in the lead-up to the Democratic National Convention.
Although Sanders was the stronger candidate against Trump, more important to the Democratic Party establishment was ensuring their loyal Wall Street candidate was the nominee.
Clinton, the Democratic Party, and the corporate establishment had no problem with mass incarceration or racist policing until black people started fighting back. They didn’t support same-sex marriage until it was politically damaging not to. Before Occupy Wall Street broke out, the Democrats were leading the charge for cuts to Social Security after bailing out the banks. It’s mass movements that change society, not the Democratic Party.
Clinton is a perfect foil for the right-populists. If she manages to win the election, you can be assured the 1% expects something in return for the huge sums of cash they have given Clinton. This will provide more fuel for the development of right-populism and the next Trump.
We can’t let Trump – or free market fundamentalist Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party – be the only anti-establishment voice in this election. We need to build support for a left-wing, working class outlet for the huge anger in U.S. society.
Vote Stein
The presidential election is the time when the most people in the U.S. pay attention to politics. With widespread disillusionment of both candidates, millions of people will be asking critical questions about politics and searching for an alternative.
Jill Stein, unlike Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, is campaigning on a program of radical pro-working class reforms. She stands for a $15 an hour minimum wage, single-payer universal health care, free higher education and abolishing student debt, taxing the rich, and a rapid transition to renewable energy.
Stein is unlikely to win. But even one, two, or five million votes for Jill Stein would be a powerful protest, and an important way for working people and young people to keep up the pressure from the left on the establishment in the aftermath of Sanders’ loss.
This November, vote Jill Stein, and help continue the political revolution.
Join the Socialists – Help Build a New Party of the 99%
Trump’s support shows that as capitalism slides further into crisis right populism can grow. The only way to cut across right populism is by building a powerful left anti-establishment movement to channel the growing anger behind a unifying working-class agenda. Socialist Alternative is the party that led the way in electing Kshama Sawant as a socialist to the Seattle City Council. We used her campaign to build the movement for a $15 an hour minimum wage, and we won within six months.
We campaign for mass movements, a new party of the 99%, and socialist policies that go beyond the limits of this decaying capitalist system. There has never been a better time to join the socialist movement. Join Socialist Alternative today!