US citizens deserve a choice

We don’t hear much about any third party in the USA. Little is known about a choice other than the same corporate-sponsored “two-party” political system which has effectively deadlocked our nation. Our current government bodies are stymied. They cannot effectively serve the needs of our people.

U.S. citizens deserve an actual choice, not merely the appearance of one. Most other democratic nations in our global civilization have many different parties representing their peoples’ diverse needs and perspectives. The Green Party is well-represented among them. See: www.globalgreens.org  

Any third (or fourth) party candidates are excluded from nationally televised debates by a private company, the Commission on Presidential Debates. For the Oct. 3 “debate,” all questions were agreed upon in advance with both corporate-sponsored candidates. This made the display appear more like a press conference with “spin” than an actual debate.

The Green Party and its presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, and vice-presidential candidate, Cheri Honkala, are on the ballot or can be written-in by voters in most U.S. states. Stein’s “A Green New Deal for America” would curb climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions and transition the U.S. toward a sustainable and profitable economy. See: www.jillstein.org

A physician from Massachusetts, Stein would work to remove profiteering from medical care in the U.S. We currently pay, per person, over double the amounts paid by the next-highest spenders, the Swiss and Canadians who protect every citizen’s health. Saving the approximately 30% of all medical costs that are wasted on “administrative expenses” (profits, advertizing, and the paper-obstacles involved with thousands of “plans”) would go far toward protecting the health of all in the USA.

Is protecting the lives of the people not the first goal of any government?  

The Climate Crisis is still being ignored by most of our elected representatives. It was not even mentioned in the Oct. 3 “debate.” Too bad for everyone (on Earth), ignoring it will not cause its devastating effects to diminish. Decisive actions other than “drill baby drill” are required, such as growing the profitable business sector of sustainable energy (and the family-wage jobs that are created with it).

This has been accomplished in Germany, which is a nation not well-known for its sun-drenched hinterlands. The Germans, also main originators of the Green Party decided to incentivize their sustainable energy sector and now are global leaders in solar energy reception.

Why should UWT students care? Presidential candidate Stein believes in “ending student debt, bailing out the student, not the banks once again.” (See: “Predatory Student Lending,” Aug. 6, 2012 Ledger.) She knows that Social Security can be made forever-solvent simply by raising the $110,000 earned-wages limit and by requiring that all U.S.-earners pay their fair share into the fund.

Always paid for by U.S. wage-earners, S.S. is not an entitlement; it is a retirement fund, so far untouched by Wall Street speculators.