Josh Fox is certainly entitled to his opinion. The question for Josh
Fox is, how does trashing Jill Stein and the Green Party help in the
Causes you espouse?
No one ever said that Jill Stein had wings and a halo, anymore than
does Josh Fox. See Josh, we're all people around here. Of course I
know that Jill Stein enjoys a better standard of living than I. By
the same token, some of my close neighbors, close being half a mile,
have far less money than Cathy and I have. Should I be expected to
shut my big mouth and stop advocating for reform, until I have gone
about leveling my own bank account?
Why can't we see past the person and find out what they really stand
for? We're so hung up on personalities that we often lose sight of
what that personality advocates.
Too bad for Josh Fox, if he continues to put his energy into bad
mouthing. He isn't going to get much time with the corporate media,
and that means his own message will be lost
Carl Jarvis
On 10/30/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Truthdig
Eco-Activist and Filmmaker Josh Fox Opposes a Political Revolution Against
the Corporate Parties
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/josh_fox_opposes_political_revolution_ag
ainst_corporate_parties_20161028/
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Posted on Oct 28, 2016
By Scott Tucker
If the Jill Stein-Ajamu Baraka ticket wins 5 percent of the vote in the
2016 general election, the Green Party will qualify as an official national
party and get federal funding in the 2020 presidential race. (D. Ross
Cameron / AP
(http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Jill-Stein-Campaign/6bfff1e4d13b454a
a85f412986a99062/1/0) )
Let's all give thanks to Truthdig for enlightening us about the political
views of Josh Fox, environmental activist and filmmaker. When Fox was asked
in a recorded interview with Truthdig
(http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/dakota_access_pipeline_arrests_first_a
mendment_rights_20161026) to give his view of presidential nominee Jill
Stein and the Green Party, he said:
I'm sorry. It's immoral what she's doing. And I don't care if I say this on
air for the very first time-I spent eight years building the environmental
movement, I spent eight years coast-to-coast building the [anti-]fracking
movement, I went to 250 cities. I did not see the Green Party having a
significant hand in the building of that movement.
Fox is still blaming activist Ralph Nader for Democratic presidential
nominee Al Gore's loss to Republican George W. Bush in 2000. No matter how
often people like Fox get the math and history wrong, they continue to take
the easy exit from reality. They always seem to forget that Gore was a
lousy
candidate who did not even win his own home state, despite all the deep
funds of his chosen corporate party. If they really cared about a strong
foundation for democracy, the partisan Democrats would campaign in earnest
for public financing of elections and ranked choice voting
(http://elections.kqed.org/article/24303/explainer-a-ranked-choice-voting-re
fresher) . The latter reform alone would take away the argument that
opposition parties and candidates are simply "spoilers" of elections.
Fox claims to make a realistic case for "strategy," but he is only
repeating
the talking points of the career politicians and hired apparatchiks of the
Democratic Party-including the "news" from sites such as The Daily Beast
claiming that Stein's portfolio is tainted
(http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/26/jill-stein-s-ideology-says
-one-thing-her-investment-portfolio-says-another.html) by the circulation
of capital in oil and other capitalist industries.
In arguing against the purity of the Greens-which is, after all, very
easily
proved-Fox ends up arguing for an absurd standard of political morality. By
such a standard, all of us must first become saints or professional
revolutionaries before opposing the anti-democratic corporate parties.
Stein, like many people, is looking for ethical ways to save and invest
money. She is certainly upper-middle class, and in global terms decidedly
among the rich. But by ruling-class ranking she does not rank at all. Money
remains money and does not circulate simply by the dictates of our wills.
By the very standard of choosing "the lesser of two evils," which Fox
otherwise insists is the decisive choice between presidential nominees
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, we might also choose to compare the
wealth
and portfolio of Stein with the Clintons'-including the "philanthropic"
Clinton Foundation. Or is this comparison ruled out of order if we refuse
to
vote for the candidate (and party) of Fox's choice?
Fox also claims the Green Party only "shows up every four years" to run a
presidential campaign, without building the base and winning local offices
in the meantime. False, as the public record shows. But it is surely true
that the Greens can't compete fairly in big elections without a fair share
of federal funds, so gaining the threshold 5 percent of votes in the
general
election would be a net gain for liberty and democracy. Fox sees that
percentage result only as a gift to Trump in this election, and thus argues
in effect that democracy is too dangerous if we must count votes against
both Republicans and Democrats. He takes no responsibility for the downward
spiral of retrograde bipartisan candidates in every presidential election,
though the party of his choice is one of the big reasons for the erosion of
voter turnout. [Editor's note: Jill Stein writes:
(http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/27/why-5-for-the-green-party-is-a-win-for-ameri
ca-jill-stein-commentary.html) "Just 5 percent of the national vote for
the
Green Party Stein/Baraka ticket can be a true game-changer for American
politics. It will qualify the Green Party for recognition as an official
national party, and for federal funding in the 2020 presidential race
proportional to the amount of votes received-at least $8 million to $10
million. It would also secure ballot access in a number of states that
automatically grant ballot status if the presidential candidate receives
anywhere from 1 percent to 5 percent of the vote (varying by state)."]
Activists in the Green Party have been in the trenches of environmental
struggles far longer than the "eight years" Fox spent in the anti-fracking
movement. So if Fox is not aware of Green organizers and activists, either
he is genuinely ignorant or he is a partisan propagandist.
Fox's alliance with Our Revolution, Bernie Sanders' new movement, means he
followed Sanders right back into the Democratic Party. Despite all of the
friendly attempts by Stein to communicate directly with the Sanders camp,
he
chose not to cross a public and open bridge of communication. And indeed,
though Stein and Sanders agree on many issues, an abiding contradiction
separates the Green Party from the Democratic Party. As Stein has noted,
you
can't advance a political revolution within a counterrevolutionary party
(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/poll_do_you_support_bernie_sand
ers_our_revolution_20160827) .
Fox says he'd be glad to support various local Green candidates, but he
calls Stein "immoral" for daring to run as a Green presidential candidate.
In fact, a presidential campaign is one way to raise funds and awareness of
the state and local Green candidates Fox claims he would like to support.
Fox is in no position to be giving "strategic" advice to the Green Party,
since he is not yet ready to make both a moral and strategic break from the
Democratic Party.
The Green New Deal is a practical program for peace, economic democracy and
ecological sanity. A political revolution begins, morally and
strategically,
with the power of we, the people. Every day of our lives. Including
election
days.
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