Tuesday September 11, 2012, 10:34 am
These also happen to be some of the best reasons to vote Green Party this year. I'm voting for Jill Stein, Presidential candidate for the Green Party in 2012. http://www.jillstein.org/

Tuesday September 11, 2012, 11:05 am
I couldn't agree more with this post. Thanks.

Tuesday September 11, 2012, 11:34 am
Totally agree on all 5 counts

Tuesday September 11, 2012, 3:57 pm

I guess I might rearrange the priorities, but I do agree, religion has no place in politics. Nor does the silly question, long worn out by Reagan and once again being reused, retooled and recycled.

I think the Green Party needs to do some ground work to build a grass roots organization. I really like Jill Stein.

Tuesday September 11, 2012, 8:27 pm
Thanks Brian for the link to the Yes Magazine article by Sarah van Gelder. I agree on all the five issues mentioned. Read and noted.

Wednesday September 12, 2012, 2:01 am
I also agree on all five points/counts. I also really like Jill Stein and in 2016 if she can get the funding needed to actually compete with whoever else is running , well she'll damn sure get my vote in that election. For this one, the alternative to Obama is as much of a disastor waiting for it's chance as the Dubya years were or worse..so I'll be voting Obama in this election.

Jill has four years to get that grass roots organization to the max and to find herself the funding needed to go up against both the Dem's and Repubs. I hope she does and as mentioned, at this time I will fully support her candidacy for President in 2016. She and Rocky Anderson I like...too bad they couldn't united as a team ..that's be one heck of a win win I think.

Wednesday September 12, 2012, 7:39 am
Thanks, everyone: I'd send you all green stars,but yet again the system says it's too soon.

Jae, it's true: Obama is a million light years better than Romney. But I personally think the stakes are neither too high, nor the race that close. Romney isn't going to win. Any suggestion that he might have a chance is nothing but corporate media hype. The reality is that the vast majority of Americans never bother to vote because they see that the choices before them never have much difference between them. Obama is going to win. But it the non-voting masses ever got mobilized to take a chance on a Green vision for America, neither of the corporate parties would stand a chance. Nonetheless, Obama, according to the mysterious pundits who claim to know all, supposedly has a 91% probability of winning re-election. So, it's safe to say he's going to win.

Win or not, I just find I can no longer support a party that still clings to toxic free market capitalism as the economic plank of its platform (which both of the corporate sponsored parties do).

I'm not as familiar with Rocky Anderson as perhaps I should be. People keep mentioning him to me. I shall have to find out more.

Wednesday September 12, 2012, 9:17 am
I agree. Shared this on facebook.

Wednesday September 12, 2012, 9:27 am
Thanks, Doris!

Wednesday September 12, 2012, 10:23 am
Agreed, religion and politics should be seperated. Be aware, the corporations are mighty, and I think Green doesn't stand a chance. Maybe within 20 years or so...

Wednesday September 12, 2012, 10:33 am
That's what the corporate owned and operated two-parties-only system always says: third parties can't have access this year...maybe next year...or maybe in twenty. But you can't fix the problems in the system when the system itself is the problem. Vote Green and let the corporate oligarchy know that you are done with their shell game, their con job, their BS.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 4:21 am
Noted, too bad we have a Constitution that limits what the federal government can do. But I always end up voting for third parties - hoping even if they are not elected that the ideas are co-opted.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 6:47 am
way to go..

Thursday September 13, 2012, 7:09 am
I agree that we should vote a third party but am afraid that neither Jill nor Rocky will be on the ballot in all 50 states. If in NY, that's the way I'm voting.

As to the priorities, I might rearrange them and re-write number three. Without a very robust militray we will continue to incur the "bonus" of over-exerting our troops. I use that word in quotes because many think that the suicide rate is directly related to the stress of too many combat deployments or deployments overall. The cuts I would add would be in social welfare programs and I would do that by enforcment and cutting the fraud waste and abuse that is so very prevalent. Ditto for unemployment and public emplyee unions.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 7:42 am
"Jill Stein is on the ballot in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawai'i, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin and new states Iowa, Idaho, Minnesota, and Montana,

The Green Party is currently seeking a ballot line for candidate Stein in: Alabama, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.

Jill Stein will appear as a write-in in: Georgia, Indiana, and Missouri. "

http://www.jillstein.org/ballot

Thursday September 13, 2012, 7:49 am
I think the original article was great and right on point....I also love The Green Party and Jill Stein seems like an excellent person, but why did the conversation become all about The Greens and not about the original ideas of the article....

Thursday September 13, 2012, 8:08 am
Super duper article in my opinion. What about voting for the Green Party candidates?

Thursday September 13, 2012, 8:11 am
These 5 issues, which as the article title suggests,"this election should be about...," are precisely issues that the Green Party has addressed in their platform above and beyond what the two mainstream parties have... and that is why mentioning the Green Party is relevant in conjunction with this article.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 2:09 pm
Religion and and politics should never be mixed. I believe in 100% separation of church and state. I think I'm gonna vote green I know they dont have a chance of winning but sick of voting for the lesser of 2 evils.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 2:37 pm
I consider the Unaffordable Care Act an issue that needs to be dealt with: PPACA needs to be destroyed. And ficing the deficit should start by reining in Congress, not the military.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 3:56 pm
We have the most over-bloated defense spending on this planet. We could cut the military budget in half and still have the largest military budget of any nation ever. All this money we're wasting right now is not making us the least bit safer.

Thursday September 13, 2012, 4:37 pm
Thanks Brian--great post.

Friday September 14, 2012, 12:02 am
Jill Stein is a direct threat to our democracy. I agree with everything in the article, everything she says, but she has just assured a win for Romney. How can you not see this? The way to implement change is to infiltrate the Democratic Party the way the Tea Party know-nothings infiltrated the GOP. The way US politics is presently constituted anyone who drafts votes from the Democrats should be regarded as a GOP shill. But if your goal is to end MediCare, Social Security, MediCaid, unemployment insurance (thanks for that, John), the entire safety net, tp collapse the healthcare system, war with Iran and the establishment of a theocratic plutocracy, then by all means vote for either Romney or Stein. It doesn't make a difference which.

The issues listed in the story should make it explicit that disparity of wealth is the biggest threat to our country and our economy.

Friday September 14, 2012, 5:20 am
thanks

Friday September 14, 2012, 6:39 am
A vote for Stein is a vote for Romney and there is no other way to look at it. No one who votes Repug will vote for Stein, so every protest vote is one less for Obama. And while some of you may have good reason to not be gun ho for Obama he is one hell of a lot better for your cause than Romney or any Repug ever will be. And if Stein is so damn good why has she just not been running as a Dem. But having read her "Green New Deal" and 'Economic Bill of Rights' it is not hard to see why she is fringe third party. She is states rights, local control, hard core Libertarian nicely green washed, long on radical socio-economic re-engineering on a disastrously short time line while being nearly as short on specifics and pragmatism as Romney. And rosy as her vision may be she is going to try and implement all of her grandiose plan with absolutely no legislative power base on the local, state or Federal levels. A pyramid, as in government, is built from the bottom up with the apex, Presidency, at the top not at the bottom.

Friday September 14, 2012, 8:40 am
Folks, this kind of talk, "Jill Stein is a direct threat to our democracy...," is just plain nuts. If you think that Romney has enough of a chance to win that Jill Stein is a threat to Obama's victory, then you really aren't keeping up with the numbers game. Obama is going to win. Romney is going to lose. I know this without even the slightest doubt; so why are so many Obama supporters so lacking in faith in their own candidate's ability to win that they need to slam Jill Stein? Jill Stein is NOT the greatest threat to our democracy. The corporate owned and operated two party system is. People are slamming Jill Stein's supporters simply because we refuse to drink the kool-aid any longer. Some of you can't stand the idea that, after over three decades of voting Democrat, I am leaving the fold. I just refuse to vote for free market capitalism any longer. I refuse to vote for ever increasing military budgets. I refuse to vote for inaction on climate change. I am not voting for Obama. I am not voting for Romney. I am voting for Jill Stein because she and the Green Party that she represents have a platform that I can completely embrace. A vote for Jill or for any other Green Party candidate is a vote for revolution, a vote for real change now. She isn't going to win, but come 2016, the Democrats are going to have to toss the left a bone or lose us forever.

Friday September 14, 2012, 8:43 am
Anyone that would be so shallow and naive to suggest that voting for Jill Stein is, in effect, voting for Romney or that somehow, she is basically a shill for the Repugnants, needs to take a good long look in the mirror and see themselves for what they are: shills for Big Business, enthusiasts for endless war, and supporters of out-of-control climate change.