David Bruce Collins—the Official Site
  • Index
  • Blog
  • Biography
  • Writing
    • Novels in Print
    • Eastern Daylight (1997) >
      • Eastern Daylight: April
      • Eastern Daylight: May
      • Eastern Daylight: June
      • Eastern Daylight: July
      • Eastern Daylight: August
      • Eastern Daylight: September
      • Eastern Daylight: October
    • Bite-Size Hungarian
  • Politics
    • Life As a Green
    • Ten Key Values of GPUS (English)
    • Issues (2014)
  • County Gov't
  • Web Links

Excitement Ahead for Houston Greens

10/9/2015

 
OK, DBC, time to revive this blog. It's been rather stagnant of late.

October 2015 will bring visits from a couple of national Green Party celebrities to H-Town. At the beginning of the month, Convention Committee Chair Tamar Yager will come to scout locations for the 2016 GPUS Presidential Nominating Convention. In case you haven't heard the news, in August Houston got the nod to hold next year's big convention. This will be the first GPUS PNC to be held in the Deep South. (I would just say "in the South," but some people still consider Baltimore a Southern city.)

A few weeks later, Dr. Jill Stein will drop by for a couple of days. The dates aren't confirmed yet, but we're estimating 20-21 October. Again, if you haven't heard, Stein is looking to become GPUS's first two-time nominee for president. She is not the only Green candidate, and we don't want to refer to her as the presumptive nominee; however, only she among Greens has applied for federal matching funds and made other steps toward looking like a real candidate.

This blog will report on the exact dates and places of Stein's appearances when they become known.

Two themes keep coming up in Stein's campaign:
  1. She is participating in a lawsuit against the Federal Elections Commission for its stubborn refusal to allow minor-party candidates into the presidential debates.
  2. She is not Bernie Sanders, and Bernie Sanders is not Jill Stein.


The primary reason that Greens, Libertarians, et al, are excluded from the debates is the restrictions that the FEC's Commission on Presidential Debates has set in place. A candidate must be polling at 15% in at least one nationwide survey in order to have a place in the debate. H. Ross Perot managed that in 1992, but he had a lot of money to throw around, in addition to his prominence in efforts to reform public education in Texas in the 1980s. But the CPD was formed by the major parties, so it has an interest in protecting the two-party duopoly from additional competition.

On the second point: Yes, Stein and Sanders are retirement-age Americans of Euro-Jewish descent who live in New England. Yes, Green and Democratic Socialist talking points certainly overlap. But there are substantial differences between them on foreign and security policies, especially regarding Israel. Check out this interview of Stein from Mint Press.

Stein also notes that, when Sanders fails to achieve the Democratic Party's nomination, he will not be an available option in the general election, but will instead support the Democratic nominee. If Stein wins the Green nomination, as seems likely, she will be on the ballot in about 44 states, with more than enough electoral votes in play for a potential Green victory.

Comments are closed.

    DBC Sez...

    Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics.

    Categories

    All
    2018
    ACORN
    Affordable Care Act
    Ahmad Hassan
    Ajamu Baraka
    Alabama
    Al Gore
    Amazon
    Approval Voting
    Art Car Parade
    Ballot Access
    Bernie Sanders
    Black Agenda Report
    #BlackLivesMatter
    B&N
    Book Review
    Brains And Eggs
    Breast Cancer
    Burning Man
    Caitlin Johnstone
    Caleb Alexander
    Campaign
    Campaign 2018
    Candidates' Forum
    Candidate Workshop
    Catastrophic Theatre
    Cenk Uygur
    Cheri Honkala
    Chicago
    Choir
    Chris Hedges
    Chuck Kuffner
    City Council
    Climate Change
    Climate March
    Colin Kaepernick
    Convention
    Corporatocracy
    County Clerk
    County Judge
    Cover Design
    Cycling
    Dan Monahan
    Darryl Cherney
    David Cobb
    David Rovics
    Death By Cop
    Death Penalty
    Debates
    Deep State
    #DemEnter
    Demexit
    #DemExit
    Depression
    Donald Trump
    #DownticketGreens
    DSA
    Duopoly
    Dwight Boykins
    Early Voting
    Earth Day
    Earthworm
    Eastern Daylight
    Ecological Wisdom
    Economic Justice
    Ed Emmett
    Egberto WIllies
    Eleanor Goldfield
    Election 2015
    Election 2016
    Election 2017
    Election 2018
    Election 2020
    Electoral College
    Elvis Costello
    Emancipation Park
    Emily Sanchez
    Emily Sanchez
    Endorsements
    Energy
    Environment
    Erika Martinez
    Fiction
    Film Review
    Fourth Turning
    Francesca Fiorentini
    Full Frontal
    Fundraising
    Gary Johnson
    Gary Stuard
    Gerrymandering
    Glenn Greenwald
    Gray Matters
    #GreenEnter
    Green Party
    Greenwatch TV
    Gun Violence
    Hal Ridley Jr.
    Harris County
    HAUS
    HAUS Project
    HCGP
    Hillary Clinton
    HMS
    Homelessness
    Houston
    Houston Area Progressives
    Houston Astros
    Houston Dash
    Houston Dynamo
    Houston Fringe Festival
    Hurricane Harvey
    Immigration
    Instant Runoff Voting
    International Affairs
    Inverted Totalitarianism
    Iran
    IRV
    IUniverse
    Janis RIchards
    Jan RIchards
    Jill Stein
    Jimmy Dore
    Jonathan Franzen
    JosH Darr
    Juneteenth
    Justice
    Kenneth Kendrick
    Kenneth Mejia
    Kent Mesplay
    Keystone XL
    Key Values
    KPFT
    Laredo
    Last Week Tonight
    Late-Stage Capitalism
    League Of Women Voters
    Lee Camp
    Libertarian Party
    Lina Hidalgo
    Local Democracy
    Maine
    #MarchForOurLives
    March For Science
    March On The Pentagon
    Margaret Flowers
    Marijuana
    Martina Salinas
    Mass Shootings
    Mayor
    Media
    Medicare For All
    Mental Health
    Metro
    Mudslinging
    Naomi Klein
    NationBuilder
    Net Neutrality
    New Orleans
    New Zealand
    NORML
    North Carolina
    Our Revolution
    Outlander
    Outreach
    Overdevelopment
    Pacifica
    Parkland FL
    Paul Ingmundson
    PDiddie
    Pennsylvania
    Platform
    Plutocracy
    PNC
    Police
    Politics Done Right
    Polls
    Progressivism
    Proofreading
    Puerto Rico
    Ranked Choice Voting
    Recount 2016
    Remington Alessi
    #Resistance
    Revolution
    Russiagate
    Samantha Bee
    San Antonio
    School Shootings
    Scotland
    Scottish National Party
    Scott McLarty
    Sema Hernandez
    Sheila Jackson Lee
    Single Payer
    SKCM Curry
    Smart Growth
    Socialism
    Socialist Alternative
    Spoiler Effect
    Straight Party Voting
    Strauss & Howe
    Sylvester Turner
    Syria
    Tax Policy
    Ted Cruz
    Texas House
    Texas Leftist
    Texas Progressive
    Texoblogosphere
    Texpatriate
    The Intercept
    The North Star
    Third Parties
    Thom Hartmann
    Traffic
    Transit
    Treason
    Turnout
    Urbanism
    UU
    Van Cliburn
    Vanessa Edwards Foster
    Vish
    War On Drugs
    Website
    World Cup
    World Naked Bike Ride

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly