The Norwich Bulletin, May 1, 2016
Green Party presidential candidate talks about her platform
by John Penney
Jill Stein, 65, the Green Party’s presidential nominee, is banking on a groundswell of support from disaffected, debt-ridden young people as she again makes a run for the highest office in the land. Stein, who received more votes — 456,169 — than any other general election female candidate in the 2012 race, sat down with The Bulletin’s editorial board on Friday to discuss her platform, the unlikelihood of collaborating with the Bernie Sanders campaign and her plan to cut the military and reinvest in renewable energy.
On Bernie Sanders: “The Green Party’s been trying to get in touch with Bernie Sanders for about four years, so I’m not holding my breath. Many of his supporters are also our supporters and they have been urging us since the beginning to collaborate. And as the road became very rocky for Bernie, which was pretty much inevitable as the Democratic Party is not friendly to rebel campaigns, we were glad to reach out to him. He has been very clear that his commitment is to the Democratic Party.”
On student debt relief: “There are 43 million young people who are locked into debt for which there is very little hope of escaping, given the economy. Our campaign is the only one that will cancel student debt by creating quantitative easing packages. If we could do that for the crooks that crashed the economy I think there’s a very strong case for doing that for the young people. There is the potential for our campaign to spread like a wildfire among a demographic that is otherwise left high and dry.”
On her chances: “This has been a very unusual election season and all the rules of game are collapsing one-by-one. I’m not holding my breath that we’re going to win, but I’m not ruling it out. I wouldn’t offhand say that it’s impossible for a voter revolt. In fact, both parties are really holding on by the skin of their teeth trying to maintain their lock on the system. But 50 percent of voters are independent.”
The plan: “For every $1 spent on fossil fuels, we can create three times as many jobs in alternative energy. We need a New Green Deal — like (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s) New Deal plan, on steroids- by creating 20 million new jobs focused on areas of clean, sustainable energy, sustainable food systems efficient, renewably powered transportation. We’re calling for 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.”