Feel The Green? Jill Stein Invites ‘Political Twin’ Bernie Sanders To Take Over Ticket And Keep The Revolution Alive
Amid reports that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is close to endorsing Hillary Clinton in light of FBI’s recent recommendation that she should not be prosecuted for her email gaffes, Green Party’s probable presidential candidate, Jill Stein, has invited Sanders to take over her ticket and continue the “political revolution,” according to the Guardian.
Speaking to the media organization, Stein, who is expected to be endorsed at the party’s August convention in Houston, said that an “overwhelming” number of young Bernie Sanders supporters are flocking to the Green Party rather than continuing to rally behind the Democratic Party.
“I’ve invited Bernie to sit down explore collaboration – everything is on the table. If he saw that you can’t have a revolutionary campaign in a counter-revolutionary party, he’d be welcomed to the Green party. He could lead the ticket and build a political movement.”
Green party's Jill Stein invites Bernie Sanders to take over ticket https://t.co/FNEDMncjc0
— The Guardian (@guardian) July 8, 2016
The invitation, coupled with Stein’s credible assertion that thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters are moving to the Green Party, whose platform is much more well-aligned to the issues that Bernie Sanders’ focused on during his election campaign, could have a destabilizing effect on the Democratic Party. Furthermore, Stein’s claims that the DNC sabotaged Sanders’ attempts to win the nomination a number of times during the course of the primary season have also appeared to strike a chord with Sanders supporters, who have repeatedly felt betrayed by the way Sanders has been treated by the political elite within the Democratic Party.
“If he continues to declare his full faith in the Democratic party, it will leave many of his supporters very disappointed,” Stein went on to add, before saying whether or not Bernie Sanders stands by his campaign promises, the movement he has built will continue to rage on.
“That political movement is going to go on – it isn’t going to bury itself in the graveyard alongside Hillary Clinton.”
This is not the first time that Jill Stein has expressed an interest in collaborating with Sanders. Last month, after Hillary Clinton prematurely announced her victory even as people geared up to vote in California, Jill Stein had informally written to Sanders, asking him to consider leaving the Democratic Party and instead contest on Green Party’s ticket.
However, according to Stein, Sanders did not reach out to her on that occasion, and while that could be interpreted as a sign that he would ultimately not be interested in forming a “political marriage” with the Green Party, Stein says that she is refusing to rule out the improbable in an election season that has witnessed a number of unusual developments for the first time.
“I’m not holding my breath but I’m not ruling it out that we can bring out 43 million young people into this election. It’s been a wild election; every rule in the playbook has been tossed out. Unfortunately, that has mainly been used to lift up hateful demagogues like Donald Trump, but it can also be done in a way that actually answers people’s needs.”
Stein further emphasized that her presidential bid has a viable “near-term goal” of reaching 15 percent in the national polling, which, if it came to fruition, would enable Green Party’s presidential candidate to stand alongside presumptive nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in televised election debates.
While a “political marriage” between Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein remains unlikely, especially considering the fact that Sanders has constantly maintained that he would not be willing to contest on a third-party ticket, such a collaboration would not only benefit the Green Party, but it could give Bernie Sanders’ “political revolution” a shot in the arm at a time when it perhaps most needs it.
[Photos by Win McNamee and Darren Hauck/Getty Images]
