Let's not be too literal about "Jill stein got 1% of the vote". There were reports that she really got closer to 5%, but the vote count was rigged, and her vote was the easiest to steal.
Jill played an important role in having the standing to demand recounts. She was willing to demand recounts when HRC was not, though it is likely HRC is the one who was cheated out of the presidency. She raised $4 million in a single weekend for the recounts, and yet there were no meaningful recounts done. In my state, PA, they just ran the same computer program counting the same data. In Wisconsin, the governor's office decided which counties to recount and most weren't.
A campaign to fix our elections COMBINED with VotePact seems like a winning strategy (as far as getting people into office that better represent the values of the electorate).
Unfortunately it seems like more attention and energy should be focused on the former first, since the latter is kind of contingent on the elections being fair.
Josh raised similar point above. Happy to intro you two. I do think these things can help each other. I'm not an expert on election integrity issues, but it seems to me that if it becomes apparent in the real world that a unified antiestablishment candidate is getting 10, 20, 30 percent support and going up, that makes any kind of election theft more and more difficult.
Voting will only have an impact when most of us go to the polls. Voting has little to no impact now because it is not a mass movement it is a spectator sport. A Netflix series at best. I vote and encourage others to get involved because it is better than marching in the street with pitch forks.
Agree with this. I think an antiestablishment candidate would help bring tons of people into the process. What's key is shattering the illusion of inevitability about duopoly rule.
Let's not be too literal about "Jill stein got 1% of the vote". There were reports that she really got closer to 5%, but the vote count was rigged, and her vote was the easiest to steal.
Jill played an important role in having the standing to demand recounts. She was willing to demand recounts when HRC was not, though it is likely HRC is the one who was cheated out of the presidency. She raised $4 million in a single weekend for the recounts, and yet there were no meaningful recounts done. In my state, PA, they just ran the same computer program counting the same data. In Wisconsin, the governor's office decided which counties to recount and most weren't.
Thanks for your important perspective, Josh. As you know, I've not seriously looked into these issues. Does Stein dispute her numbers?
“If you vote for the lesser of two evils you’re liable to end up with both” - Alexander Cockburn.
I can't recall if I tried getting Alex to dig VotePact -- I'm quite sure he published my pieces about it.
Quick take on this:
VotePact is a good/smart idea as far as it goes, but it misses a huge and vital elephant in the room, which is the election integrity issue.
Here's a pretty good primer from 2016 by Mark Crispin Miller, who has studied this issue for years...
"Can U.S. Elections Really Be Stolen? Yes."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxXKr2hKCz0
A campaign to fix our elections COMBINED with VotePact seems like a winning strategy (as far as getting people into office that better represent the values of the electorate).
Unfortunately it seems like more attention and energy should be focused on the former first, since the latter is kind of contingent on the elections being fair.
Josh raised similar point above. Happy to intro you two. I do think these things can help each other. I'm not an expert on election integrity issues, but it seems to me that if it becomes apparent in the real world that a unified antiestablishment candidate is getting 10, 20, 30 percent support and going up, that makes any kind of election theft more and more difficult.
Voting will only have an impact when most of us go to the polls. Voting has little to no impact now because it is not a mass movement it is a spectator sport. A Netflix series at best. I vote and encourage others to get involved because it is better than marching in the street with pitch forks.
Agree with this. I think an antiestablishment candidate would help bring tons of people into the process. What's key is shattering the illusion of inevitability about duopoly rule.