The argument that the Green Party is a spoiler that takes votes away from the Democratic Party is a Democratic Party perpetuated myth. As exit polling has shown for decades, most Green Party voters would not have voted for either of the two corporate party candidates, if the Green Party candidate was not in the race. I, and almost every Green Party voter that I have ever met (and I have been an active Green since 1996) only vote for candidates that refuse corporate donations, i.e. Green Party candidates. The Green Party targets and gets almost all of its votes from the largest group of American voters, those that have given up on American politics because they don't see either corporate party serving their interests. I think that the majority of American voters are correct in this depressing opinion.  

Because both the Democratic and Republican Parties serve the same corporate interests, they agree on almost everything. There is only a handful of issues that they significantly differ on--guns, gays, and abortion are just about it. In almost every other sector of American life, the two corporate parties completely agree that the Market (their wealthy donors) should determine what happens. Their only role is to do nothing beyond funneling the largest pot of money in the world (the US tax base) to their wealthy donors, who not only do not pay their fair share of taxes, but, in many cases, pay no taxes at all. The situation is the same in Red States as it is in Blue States. Whether you live in California (all Blue) or Texas (all Red) many Americans are living in parks and under bridges, public infrastructure is falling apart, the sick and injured do not have access to the medical care that they need, smart kids cannot afford to go to college, and the list goes on and on.

Below are just some of the areas in which the two corporate parties agree in direct contradiction with the will of the majority of the American people.

Democracy: Americans across the political spectrum know that our democracy has long been sold out to the highest bidders. Neither of the two corporate parties, who built the pay-to-play political system together in this country, are going to reform it. At this point, we are the only country in the world that allows for the full, legalized bribery of our elected officials. Only a mass political movement that offers candidates that refuse to take corporate money, and inspires Americans to vote only for those corporate-free candidates, can resurrect American democracy from the grave that the Democrats and Republicans have buried it in. There is only one such political movement in this country today and that is the Green Party. The Green Party is the only party free of corporate domination that has been able to maintain widespread ballot access in the US for generations.

Gerrymandering: Because of the way the two corporate parties gerrymander political districts in this country, 2/3 of all districts, from the federal level down to the county level, are single-party districts in which the Blue and Red Teams do not run against each other. If there is no Green Party candidate on the ballot, there is, in many cases, only one candidate from which to choose and that is no choice at all. The Soviet Union also had lots of single-party elections, but nobody confused that with democracy. Only about 1/3 of suburban "Purple" districts get any kind of competition between the corporate parties. Even in these so-called competitive races, both parties are taking money from the same list of corporate donors, such that the corporate donors win either way. Only the Green Party offers voters a real choice.

Health Care: In America, the Market sets the price and availability of health care, resulting in poorer service overall at twice the price compared to the many countries that have universal public health care systems. Both corporate parties are dedicated foes to a more effective and affordable public health care system because they are wholly captured by the private health care and insurance industries. Only the Green Party is committed to providing universal public health care for all Americans.

Education: In America, the Market sets the price and availability of higher education making it out of reach for most working families or only available via crushing college debt. Most developed countries largely guarantee access to higher education regardless of ability to pay, which is why the US is falling behind and must now import many thousands of engineers, doctors, high tech workers, and other educated professionals every year from abroad. The Green Party is the only political party in the US fighting for universal public pre-K through college education for all Americans.

Housing: In America, the Market sets the price and availability of housing. The public sector has largely abandoned providing affordable housing as it once did in this country throughout the post-war era. Instead, real estate developers and investors are allowed to hoard this critical resource driving up the cost and pricing out most working families. Even in the cases where young families inherit property, they must often sell the "family jewels" by the time they inherit it, in order to pay off the massive debt that they have accrued as exploited renters. Only the Green Party will regulate the housing market and guarantee affordable housing for all.

Transportation: In America, the Market sets the price and availability of transportation. Rather than investing in public transportation, the public sector subsidizes massive amounts of completely unsustainable infrastructure to support their donors preferred transportation system centered on private automobiles. More efficient modes of transportation such as public buses, trains, and subways not only alleviate costly maintenance of roads, but also allow people to get to where they need to go regardless of their ability to pay or own a private vehicle.

Energy: In America, the Market sets the price and availability of energy. If humanity is to survive the Climate Emergency we are facing, we must stop burning fossil fuels. Although wind and solar are gaining a market foothold, they will never replace the amount of energy produced by burning fossil fuels. In fact, as renewable energy has grown, so has the burning of fossil fuels due to our insatiable growth-based economy. Ultimately, we must transition to a degrowth economy in which we use much less energy to survive. This includes the rapid decarbonization of our energy system, keeping fossil fuels in the ground, and forcing fossil fuel companies to get on board or go out of business. There is no stomach in either of the two corporate parties for what must be done. It is a myth that the Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party on this most important issue. In fact, Red Texas is the leader in developing renewable energy production in this country. Blue states like California and Colorado are issuing thousands of new drilling permits per year. Indeed, the Biden and Obama administrations issued more new drilling permits per year than the Trump administration. There are over 30 new fossil fuel pipelines under construction in the US right now. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are permitting this omnicidal behavior that has brought us to the edge of civilization collapse. The debacle at the latest COP Climate Summit shows how far away our existing political leaders are from dealing seriously with this existential threat. There is no more time left to try and talk these insincere and/or critically compromised actors into doing the right thing. We must replace them ASAP with good ancestors who refuse corporate donations, and, therefore, will fight for People, Planet, and Peace instead of the short-term profits of billionaire sociopaths.

Agriculture: The agribusiness monopolies have been controlling agricultural policy for decades through both Red and Blue administrations and in Red and Blue states. These monopolies have overwhelmingly skewed agricultural subsidies to their destructive monoculture crops (GMO corn, soybeans, and wheat) and CAFO's (concentrated animal feed operations) that poison ecosystems and rural communities and have made the American family farm rare and endangered. Industrial agriculture is highly dependent upon the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers that are contaminating our soil, water, and air and making us sick. Only the Green Party is committed to shifting public subsidies away from these unsustainable practices to a system where healthy, organic, and diverse food is produced locally and widely available to all Americans.

Foreign Policy: With both corporate parties engorged on weapons manufacturers’ money, they have for generations, only one answer to every foreign policy challenge from Vietnam to Nicaragua to Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya to Somalia to Ukraine to Palestine, ad nauseum. In every case, that one answer is the one that makes the weapons manufactures the most money. In every case, the Red and Blue teams put a white hat on one side of a conflict and a black hat on the other side, purchase billions and billions of dollars of guns, bombs, tanks, bombers, etc. using US citizens’ taxes, give them to the white hats, who destroy and kill widely until the US taxpayers get tired of it, and then walk away from the flaming destroyed place and act like it never happened. In most cases, those labeled black hats take ownership of their destroyed country in the end after billions and billions of dollars are wasted and we continue to have no money left over to invest in health care, education, housing, transportation, etc. The US has over 800 foreign military bases when no other country even has five. Empires always rot from the inside out as they spend their investments holding down resistance while the homeland withers. The Green Party is the only peace party.

Immigration: It is a myth that the Democratic Party is more humane to migrants than the Republican Party. The Obama and Biden administrations have deported more immigrants per year than the Trump administration. Both parties maintain a foreign policy that drives millions of desperate migrants to our borders fleeing their countries struggling under the weight of US sanctions and repeated US-sponsored coups and then exploits them as an illegal underclass of vulnerable workers. The Green Party will work to stabilize the countries that migrants are coming from, treat all immigrants with respect and dignity, not as criminals, and provide a real path to citizenship to all foreign nationals who wish to become Americans.

Wealth Distribution: For decades, under both Red and Blue administrations, the wealth of our nation has been steadily transferred from working Americans into the hands of aristocratic billionaires. Thirty years ago, the US middle class (middle 60%) owned twice as much wealth as the richest 1%. Today the top 1% own more than the entire middle class combined. The free market is a wealth concentration machine that neither corporate party will regulate. Only the Green Party will once again redistribute the wealth hoarded by billionaires by bringing back a sharply progressive tax system like we had in the postwar years in which the US economy was at it’s strongest.

I could go on and on explaining how we have just one corporate empire party--one painted red, white, and blue and the other painted rainbow colors. The shallow differences between them are treated by the corporate media as the entire purview of American politics, leaving out all of the most important issues above (and many others). ONLY the Green Party advocates for what must be done while working to achieve the political power necessary to make it happen (and we have been right on these issues for forty years). All other political actors give lip service, at best, on these issues. Americans must break out of the two-party trap. The Green Party is a very different kind of political party that cannot be bought by the multinational corporations and billionaires and, therefore, is the only party that can and will represent the will of the American people. Don’t throw your vote away by voting for Democrats and Republicans who both serve the same wealthy aristocrats. Vote Green Party for People, Planet, and Peace Over Profit.

By Nathan Kline, 02/07/2024