After two failed attempts at the Presidency, Jill Stein is at again.
By: Conor J. Kelly
With a year away from the election, there are a number of candidates running to unseat President Biden from the Oval Office. Some are serious, like former President Donald Trump, and some are not, such as Dr. Cornel West and Robert F Kennedy Jr. While the GOP is holding its primary and has conducted its third debate, the reality is beginning to set in that Donald Trump is likely going to be the nominee for the GOP and Biden the nominee for the Democrats. But now, another candidate has decided to enter the fray, the twice-failed Green Party nominee, Dr. Jill Stein.
Who is Jill Stein?
For those unfamiliar with Stein, she is a physician and former nominee for the Green Party. She advocates for a Green New Deal and has long raised the issue of Climate Change being a threat to the well-being of America and the world. To some, she would appear to be a strong competitor against the current establishment Democratic Party and the two-party system. Indeed, Stein’s announcement speech said as such when she posted it on Twitter.
Democrats have betrayed their promises for working people, youth and the climate again and again, while Republicans don’t even make such promises in the first place,” she said in a video announcing her candidacy, and accused both parties of being “a danger to our democracy.”
Jill Stein, 11/9/2023
The Potential Dangers of a Stein Candidacy
This potential appeal may prove difficult for the Biden administration, and it is worth noting that prior races have seen Stein potentially serve the interests of the right. In 2012, she was not as significant, as she only managed to get roughly 470,000 votes. In 2016, that was not the case, with Stein gaining 1.4 million votes, with some arguing that she siphoned votes away from Clinton. However, that has been contested by some scholars.
Still, she remains on the ballot in 17 states, making her a significant force in the race and a potential threat to the Biden campaign, as it already has struggled to maintain a strong defense against Trump in key states. A rather convenient position for the former president’s campaign.
The announcement came mere days after Democrats successfully won in key states in the recent elections in Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, to name a few, suggesting, at the very least, potential backing from right-wing groups. However, that is not confirmed, and there is little to no evidence of such intent by any right-wing actors as of yet.
Still, it would not surprise me in the slightest as Republican operatives were previously exposed in 2020 for financing and encouraging Kanye West’s campaign for President in an attempt to siphon off Black voters. Needless to say, that didn’t work.
Even if Stein’s campaign is not an attempt to siphon off votes, her record on things such as foreign policy suggests a dangerous streak that would lead to a pro-Putin element.
Stein’s Weird Putin Connection
While Stein has not been demonstrated to be a knowing Russian asset as previously claimed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she has been promoted by the Russian-controlled Internet Research Agency during the 2016 election.
She has also repeatedly equivocated Russia’s occupation of Crimea. In an interview with Vox, she said:
These are highly questionable situations. Why are we—Russia used to own Ukraine. Ukraine was historically a part of Russia for quite some period of time, and we all know there was this conversation with Victoria Nuland about planning the coup and who was going to take over … Let’s just stop pretending there are good guys here and bad guys here. These are complicated situations. Yeah, Russia is doing lots of human rights abuse, but you know what? So are we.
Jill Stein on Russia’s illegal occupation of Ukrainian territory.
She has also participated in the so-called Real Path to Peace event, which failed to address measures to prevent Russia from further encroaching on Ukrainian territory even as Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is facing charges for the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children from the country.
More damning, however, is the fact that in 2015 Stein attended the 10th anniversary dinner of the state-supported propaganda machine for the Russian government, RT. She attended it with Trump’s former National Security Advisor and current conspiracy theorist, Michael Flynn. More damning than sitting with a right-wing conspiracy theorist is the fact that the infamous dictator himself, Vladimir Putin, sat with Stein at the same table. In the simplest of terms, Stein’s supposed frustration with Putin faded away the moment she decided to have dinner with him.
Stein herself claims that she didn’t know Putin was going to be there and barely said anything to her. However, even if that were true, and I sincerely doubt that it is, it would still not justify attending an event that celebrated an authoritarian kleptocracy’s media arm.
RT is that media arm and has been that way since its inception. So much so that its Editor in Chief, Margarita Simonyan, referred to RT as being similar to Russia’s Defense Ministry and argued that RT was part of an “information war against the whole Western world…” There is no acceptable defense that would allow Stein to celebrate such an organization and should disqualify her from being taken seriously as a candidate for president.
Mind you, this media outlet has assisted and maintained the line for Vladimir Putin, who Stein herself has admitted is a dictator. That alone suggests either an unwitting contradiction in her moral framework or a complete disregard for the dangers posed by the Russian government. Either way, this is disqualifying.
Jill Stein Should Not Run For President
While much of what has been discussed here involves her takes on Russia and her influence as a repeated failure of a presidential candidate, there is much that could be criticized on her record. Her history with vaccines alone is reason enough to disregard her.
More than that, Stein has demonstrated a willingness to make attempts towards power, which she practically knows she will never have, all the while risking the rise of the far-right. At a time when the former president is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and is planning to investigate his political rivals, it is completely unacceptable for a candidate like Stein to enter the fray. We already have enough issues with far-right as it is, we can’t afford to lose the 2024 election to its biggest voice all because a failed third-party candidate couldn’t accept that the American people don’t want her.
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