First of all, I've long said that people like me take voting and elections MORE seriously than Democrats or Republicans. (And, I'll get to this more in a minute.) Above all, people like me decry "Democrats support democracy" claims when in reality, they do everything they can to keep third-party and independent candidates off the ballot. Republicans don't articulate such cries, and they don't fear Libertarians as much as Democrats fear Greens, but they sometimes engage in candidate suppression, too.
Beyond that, of course, Democrats, just like Republicans, still support genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Middle East, even supporting its further spread.
That said, this year, I'll say that people like me take voting and elections more seriously than many Greens, for sure, and probably many Libertarians, too.
So, first of all, the official write-in candidates for president and vice president here in Tex-ass are:
NOT here? Besides the pulling out Brainworm Bobby? SPUSA's Bill Stodden, who has been as much wasted space as Kennedy. And, one more, noted below.
Teases eliminated, and cutting to the chase, with the explainers below?
It's Claudia de la Cruz.
Now, why I'm not voting for either of the third-party candidates, focusing on Green nominee Jill Stein.
First, setting aside her investments hypocrisy, I haven't even talked much this year about things like her antivaxxer footsies, her 5G nuttery (most recently CRUSHED just last month, as detailed by the Skeptical Raptor) and more. That said, I know shit like 5G conspiracy theories and antivaxxerism (even if it was footsies, not full-blown with her) appeals to a fair chunk of Greens, as I said after in the last run-up to the 2020 race at that link. Whether it's a majority or not, I don't know. OTOH, COVID scared enough Greens that Stein doubled down on pandering there, saying she supported the vaccine but opposed vaccine mandates. Or, to put them in the scare quotes they need? "Vaccine mandates." Gee, a Rethuglican could say that. Like Gov. Strangeabbott. On the third hand, I called Stein Just.Another.Politician.™ years ago, and said Greens were Just.Another.Political.Party™. I stand by that. Sadly, the National Black Caucus of the party has gone even more down this road.
Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports are among the most vile, unconstitutional, immoral, unscientific, discriminatory and outright criminal policies ever enforced upon the population
Just wow. Shit, that could have been written by Libertarians.
Related, and for White Greens? If you're a party of the left, but you flirt
with conspirituality ideas on public health, and not just on vaccines, I raise my eyebrows. You, certain sections of the GP. This includes some of the breakaways like William Pounds.
Finally, Stein herself and too many other Greens are AccommoGreens,
Greens who are really DSA Rosey Democrats, just not officially members
of that party. Among presidential candidates from 2004 and on, Cynthia
McKinney might be the one exception, but she was as much a political
butterfly as Cornel West and a bigger overall nutter, including being
actually antisemitic.
Sadly, and
one thing that has me not locked in on Claudia de la Cruz is her possibly Stein-lite stance on vaccines. I added "possibly" to what was originally written. She's been attacked by ex?-Berners discovering the world of third parties, on the one hand, and on the other ...
Joseph Kishore, the candidate of the Trots of
the Socialist Equality Party? Not available as a write-in, and while the SEP might be better than the PSL on COVID, per the link immediately above, it's worse, to far worse, on other issues, as I wrote about a week ago.
Libertarians? Chase Oliver, despite his attacks by the Mises Mice, opposes "vaccine mandates," too, like Stein and apparently like de la Cruz. (Oliver is also a typical "the invisible hand of the market can solve climate change," to the degree he admits it's real. And, we don't have time for his "eventually." So, he's doubly ruled out.)
Tis true, per Green (not ex-Green, just ex-activist) Mark Lause, and the late 2016 Socialist Party USA candidate Mimi Soltysik, that the Left is politically fragmented. But, within the Communist-based Left, that's mainly self-inflicted wounds that can only be healed from the inside and probably never will be.
And, HOLY SHIT on a post of mine, a third party update from two weeks ago, I picked up someone in comments who walks, talks and quacks like an SEP Trot-tankie. And, yes, that mashup is deliberate, and I told them on the comment that I was cutting them off on, I knew what Kishore said on Chinese issues. And, even if they're not an SEP Trot-tankie, they're in the neighborhood. And, it WAS some big PR. Also? To cover further bases? Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative is a fraud and a hypocrite, or vice versa, or both are both.
Second, Bill Stodden of SPUSA doesn't get mentioned. That said, I've never seen a minor party candidate in recent years be so bad at getting traction — or at trying to start traction. And, he's not on the write-in list here in Tex-ass, anyway.
So, on to others.
First, the one independent candidate by name. Cornel West? Besides the above, when he left the Green Party because his Jesse the Body Ventura-type 2020 ask wasn't agreed to any more than Jesse's halfway/backdoor request by surrogates — that is, West's request to be nominated without primaries — he lost me right there. Since then, I've noted his weathervane past. And, has he ever paid up that back child support?
Besides, Kishore's skewering of West is not only hilarious — it's true.
Brainworm Bobby is now Wasted Space in general and off the ballot here in Tex-ass anyway. He is both an antivaxxer, full on, of long standing, and a
genocidalist. Beyond that, he's gotten more nutters than he was in years
past.
So, with all the above, it's as I planned six months ago — Claudia de la Cruz. She's said nothing to indicate she's antivaxxer. She may be a pandemic minimizer, but, that's relatively small, definitely compared to the SEP.
Looking ahead to 2028? This is in part a protest vote within a protest vote. Greens still don't own my vote, and we'll see who they get to run for president then.
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