By Berl Falbaum
In this column, we are going to discuss Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Chase Oliver, three people who may play a deciding role in the fate of the U.S. after the November 5 election.
Did I hear a “Who? What are you talking about? Are you nuts or something?”
You may be right on the last question but the other two are right on point. While there has been significant discussion on the two major candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, working to woo the independent and undecided vote little, if anything, has been written or said about these three.
First, let me lay the foundation.
While polls can be unreliable and, at times, confusing and contradictory, for the purpose of our discussion let’s agree that Harris and Trump are one to 2 percentage points apart in swing states where, conventional wisdom believes, the election will be decided.
Enter the three, all running as third-party presidential candidates: Stein for the Green Party; West as an independent; and Oliver the Libertarian. All three are expected to garner about one percent of the popular vote nationally as well as in swing states. There is also a general consensus that votes for any of the three would otherwise go to Harris.
We’ll begin and focus mainly on Stein, 74, a Harvard-trained internist, who, arguably, has higher voter identification than either West or Oliver.
This is the third time she is campaigning for president; she also ran in 2012 and 2016. Politically, most would describe her as a far-left liberal whose major concern is the environment. She supports a cease-fire in the Middle East, universal health care, and free public education. (Think Bernie Sanders.)
Democrat Party officials are so concerned about her diverting votes from Harris that they have launched an ad blitz, “Jill Stein Helped Trump Once. Don’t Let Her Do It Again.”
They are referring to the 2016 election when Stein’s total exceeded Trump’s margins in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. (Hillary Clinton just needed one state to win and a Clinton victory would have spared us from nine years of Trumpism. He would never have been a factor in our body politic. If only...).
In Wisconsin, the Green Party garnered 31,000 votes but Trump won by just under 23,000 votes. In addition, in Florida, the combined vote for the Green and Libertarian Parties exceeded Trump’s margin of victory.
Michigan was decided only by about 10,000 votes (out of 4.4 million cast) which Stein could top this time given that the Arab electorate is shunning Harris because of her position on the Hamas-Israeli war.
Stein will also be on the ballot in the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada.
In this column, we are going to discuss Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Chase Oliver, three people who may play a deciding role in the fate of the U.S. after the November 5 election.
Did I hear a “Who? What are you talking about? Are you nuts or something?”
You may be right on the last question but the other two are right on point. While there has been significant discussion on the two major candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, working to woo the independent and undecided vote little, if anything, has been written or said about these three.
First, let me lay the foundation.
While polls can be unreliable and, at times, confusing and contradictory, for the purpose of our discussion let’s agree that Harris and Trump are one to 2 percentage points apart in swing states where, conventional wisdom believes, the election will be decided.
Enter the three, all running as third-party presidential candidates: Stein for the Green Party; West as an independent; and Oliver the Libertarian. All three are expected to garner about one percent of the popular vote nationally as well as in swing states. There is also a general consensus that votes for any of the three would otherwise go to Harris.
We’ll begin and focus mainly on Stein, 74, a Harvard-trained internist, who, arguably, has higher voter identification than either West or Oliver.
This is the third time she is campaigning for president; she also ran in 2012 and 2016. Politically, most would describe her as a far-left liberal whose major concern is the environment. She supports a cease-fire in the Middle East, universal health care, and free public education. (Think Bernie Sanders.)
Democrat Party officials are so concerned about her diverting votes from Harris that they have launched an ad blitz, “Jill Stein Helped Trump Once. Don’t Let Her Do It Again.”
They are referring to the 2016 election when Stein’s total exceeded Trump’s margins in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. (Hillary Clinton just needed one state to win and a Clinton victory would have spared us from nine years of Trumpism. He would never have been a factor in our body politic. If only...).
In Wisconsin, the Green Party garnered 31,000 votes but Trump won by just under 23,000 votes. In addition, in Florida, the combined vote for the Green and Libertarian Parties exceeded Trump’s margin of victory.
Michigan was decided only by about 10,000 votes (out of 4.4 million cast) which Stein could top this time given that the Arab electorate is shunning Harris because of her position on the Hamas-Israeli war.
Stein will also be on the ballot in the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada.
Republican operates are working on behalf of Stein in swing states and Trump himself has said: “Jill Stein, I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100 percent from them [Democrats].”
The issue of drawing votes from Harris are the same for West and Oliver.
West, 71, is a well-known Black intellectual, political activist, and social critic. He first announced he would seek the presidential nomination for the Green Party before choosing to run as an independent. Like Stein, he is polling at 1 percent.
According to his website, he is eligible for write-in votes in 27 states, including one swing state, Arizona. At this writing, the website says he is still waiting for final confirmation to ballots in eight other states, but adds voters can cast ballots for him in 19 states, including North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Florida, all swing states.
Oliver, 39, who lives in Atlanta, is on the ballot in 47 states and a registered write-in in three others. He has run, unsuccessfully, as a Democrat, for state offices, including for U.S. senator, in Georgia.
Any one of these three damage Harris; combined, it could be significant, indeed deadly.
I am “deemphasizing” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who ran as an independent but dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump. While he did better in polls than the three discussed here, it was never clear, in the polls, whether he, as opposed to Stein/West/Oliver, would hurt/help Trump or Harris. Kennedy probably helps Trump more, not by siphoning from Harris, but giving Trump votes he would have received to the former president had he remained in the race.
The message of this column is directed at those who plan to vote for one of the three (or not at all). I am going to go way out on a limb and predict that none of the three will win despite Stein telling an interviewer, she “would not accept as written in stone that she will not be sworn in as president in January.” Well, I for one am not buying inauguration tickets for her celebration.
Stein/West/Oliver supporters (and non-voters): You may not like Harris or Trump but one will be president. The winner will enact policies important to you, your children and grandchildren. A “vote of conscience” will not help you, your family, the country or the world.
The three are running because of uncontrollable egos; they know they can’t win — by a long shot, some 65 million votes or so. Stein managed 1.5 million votes in 2016.
Harris may not be your cup of tea. You may not like voting for her because you consider her the lesser of two evils. Okay, I understand; that’s how you feel.
But before making a final decision, consider two things: First, if Harris loses, Trump becomes president (again) — a felon, rapist, pathological liar, con artist, demagogue, a xenophobic who stoked racism and antisemitism, etc.
And, second, most importantly, the lesser evil is always better than and preferably to the greater evil.
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Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 12 books.
