The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: green party

  • Berning Green

    Berning Green

    Bernie supporters find political similarities with Jill Stein

    By Ali Osgood

    Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein spoke to an audience of nearly 400 Humboldt County community members on Wednesday night in HSU’s Kate Buchanan room. Among the crowd were human rights activists, environmentalists, future, past, and present politicians, and a large number of young people. Many of these audience members were also former Bernie Sanders supporters who looked toward Stein when Sanders was out of the running for president.

    “There are lots of Berners who are burning green,” Stein said (a Berner is another name for Bernie Sanders supporters). “The important thing here is not to close your eyes to what history is telling us…If you think we have more time to keep beating around the bush, stay in the Democratic Party. If you don’t? Move on, move forward. The more of us the better.”

    A crowd of nearly 400 gathered in the Kate Buchanan room on Wednesday Mar. 8 to watch 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speak. | Photo by Ali Osgood

    Throughout the night Stein, as well as audience members, tied in comparisons to Sanders’ platform. In the beginning of her speech, Stein addressed that she believes Sanders would have won the presidential election against Trump.

    For Humboldt, Sanders was the top democratic pick in the 2016 primary election with a 40% lead over Hillary Clinton according to the Humboldt County elections office. Clinton went on to become the democratic candidate and many Humboldt Berners went on to support Stein over Clinton. Stein had over 3,500 votes locally, a thousand more than she received when she ran for president in 2012. Clinton had a thousand less votes than president Obama received in 2012.

    Audience member Rob Jensen, Eureka, was one of the Berners who voted for Stein.

    “When the Democratic Party forced out Bernie, I felt that the Green Party had a similar platform to his,” Jensen said. “People have told me I wasted my vote, but for me, Clinton wasn’t a viable option.”

    As Stein covered topics including climate change and corrupt economics, she also discussed the problems with a two party system and how voters are more likely to vote against a candidate. Her campaign manager and 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, David Cobb, helped reiterate this concept.

    “[It’s] a voting system that forces people to feel like they have to vote against the candidate that they hate rather than for the one that they want,” Cobb said.

    Cobb, a Eureka local, saw a spike in Stein support after the 2016 Democratic National Convention(DNC) in Philadelphia where Bernie was beat out by Clinton for the nomination.

    “It’s worth pointing out that even with every single dirty trick that they did, Bernie almost won the Democratic nomination. So it’s really a testament to the hunger that so many people had for the kind of platform that Bernie represented,” Cobb said.

    According to both Sanders’ and Stein’s websites, they do have a lot of common ground in their political beliefs. Their policies on education, climate change, and a single payer health care system are nearly identical. This may have played a part in the 1000 percent fundraising increase Stein’s campaign saw after the DNC.

    Jill Stein covered an array of topics including healthcare, economic corruption, demilitarizing American foreign policy, and the flaws with the two party system. | Photo by Ali Osgood

    The spike in support for Stein, hitting as high as 20 percent in August in Colorado, according to MSNBC, helped get the Green Party ticket on 48 ballots of the 50 states.

    The HSU Greens, a student club of Green Party members, helped organize Stein’s event on Wednesday. The president of HSU Greens worked with Stein and Cobb during the 2016 campaign and helped get Stein to Humboldt State. Aaron Zvirman, HSU Greens treasurer, helped organize the grants for Steins visit and coordinated with other groups on campus for the event.

    “Having someone this high profile to the little town of Arcata is an excellent opportunity for people to play a more active role in politics and voice their opinions to someone with actual political standing,” Zvirman said.

    Audience members showed a great diversity of community members including students, activists, and even a city council member. Stein spoke for 50 minutes and answer audience questions for another hour and a half after her speech. | Photo by Ali Osgood

    After a 50 minute speech by Stein, the microphone was open to audience members to ask Stein questions. Stein was able to answer every person’s question, which went on for about an hour and a half. The crowd trickled out throughout the question panel, but about a quarter remained to see the evening through to its conclusion.

    Stein ended her speech to a standing ovation. She closed with a familiar call to action that’s been heard throughout her 2016 campaign trail.

    “We need a government that’s of, by, and for the people,” Stein said. “The power to create that world is not just in our hopes, it’s not just in our dreams. Right here and now, more than ever, it’s in our hands.”

  • Jill Stein returns to HSU

    Jill Stein returns to HSU

    By Iridian Casarez and Andrew George Butler

    Does it feel a little more green around campus today? Jill Stein, the Green Party 2016 presidential candidate, is set to speak in the Kate Buchanan room at 6 p.m., March 8. Stein, who has made several trips to HSU in the past, will speak on a variety of issues concerning the nation such as climate change, political reform, and grassroots movements.

    Q: Why are you returning to speak at HSU?

    A: This is where the change begins. Humboldt County as a whole is a very forward looking place. The Arcata City Council was the first in the nation to have a majority of Green Party members. Humboldt State has been ahead of the curve for a while now, and I think the curve is finally catching up to us.

    Q: President Donald Trump and his administration don’t believe in climate change or protecting the environment, what can we as students do to save our planet?

    A: This is a critical situation. There are two things we can do. The first is to build a strong unified movement for social change; a movement for people, planet and peace over profit. The second step is to take power. It’s very important that in addition to mobilizing in the street, we seek office and legislative change.

    Q: Do you think it’s possible for the Democratic or Republican party, with their ties to large corporations, to seek and achieve effective climate change reform?

    A: History has been teaching us a lesson here. Under the Obama administration, even with two democratic houses of congress, our emissions and fossil fuel extraction increased. The track record is clear no matter which party is in power the motto remains “Drill Baby Drill.” The Democrats are good at putting a friendly face on their policies of war, climate change, immigration and deportation.

    Q: How urgent is the climate crisis?

    A: It’s as urgent as it gets. We need to realize as a nation that it is time to act. We are out of time. We need to save our skins, and no one in Washington is going to do it for us. There’s an old saying: You can’t teach a man something when his income depends on not knowing it, and that’s the problem.

    Q: Why do you think the platform of the Green Party regarding free higher education and climate change turns away a lot of older voters?

    A: The issue is that young people are living it, and older people have a safer niche socially and economically. Their not gonna be around much longer, so they see the world with less longevity. There tends to be this generational divide between the younger and older generations. It’s always the younger generations that create change. The younger generation is the cash cow in a predatory economy.

    Q: Why do you think the U.S. government and its citizens respond to select natural disasters quickly but ignore larger issues such as global warming?

    A: To my mind the biggest issue there is that the system change is not welcome by corporate media. They do not want to give voice to a real climate mobilization.

    Q: Democratic and Republican parties get the most media attention while other political parties are left in the background with little to no media attention. What are some of the challenges that Green Party Candidates face when running for presidency? How fair do you think our election system is?

    A: Our election system makes a mockery of democracy. It does that in a few ways through no debate time, through media that won’t cover non-corporate candidates, the role of big money in politics, the role of fear, and through voter suppression. All of these things have to be fought and that’s why you need a political party, because if we only fight one issue at a time we are divided and conquered.

    Q: What made you want to be political?

    A: I didn’t get political until I was 50. It was 50 years of experience that taught me it is a losing proposition trying to make change outside of politics. As a doctor, mother, health advocate I was fighting to create cleaner jobs and clean up our coal plants. We wrote proposals to be able to do just that, but it still wouldn’t pass because it’s the campaign contributions and the lobbyists who decide how our elected officials vote. We created a referendum that cleaned up the money in politics, but the democratic party repealed it and that taught me that change wasn’t going to come from the democratic party. I was then recruited by the Green party. They said “well why don’t you keep fighting these social battles but call it a campaign governor and run against Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.” I said to myself, well nothing else is working might as well try electoral politics.

    Q: Will you be running for President in 2016?

    A: I describe myself as a mother on fire. I will do whatever I can do to be most helpful. If there is a need for me to take that role, I could not say no in good conscience.