“Genocide is the moral imperative of our era,” declares Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in this episode of The Chris Hedges Reports as she continues her campaign for the U.S. presidency. Joined by running mate, Professor Butch Ware, the two make their case as to why they should earn the vote of every disenfranchised American, stuck in the woes of personal domestic struggles and the atrocities committed abroad on their behalf by a self-serving empire.
Stein’s view is clear when looking at how the election is shaping up: “Forget the lesser evil, there is no lesser evil. You have two genocidal candidates, one conducting genocide right now and the other promising to finish the job.”
Stein and Ware hammer down that while the military-industrial complex may seem like a foreign policy issue, tackling it is key to unlocking solutions at the domestic level. Stein says the bloated defense budget, which reaches into the trillions of dollars when all expenditures are accounted for, is one of the primary obstacles she aims to take down. “This is why we are not providing for the health care, the housing, the education, getting people out of debt, dealing with the climate emergency, ending the carceral state and having a restorative system of justice and addressing the issues of poverty and hopelessness, which drive crime in the first place,” she explains.
Ware remarks that the dynamic between Americans who feel trapped into voting for Democrats out of fear of Trump is deeply toxic, fueled by the narcissism of the candidates themselves. “As soon as you sign on the dotted line, they get right back to business, murdering people with your tax dollars, putting it in their pocket, letting your neighborhoods dissolve and break down,” Ware tells Hedges.
Ware makes clear that there is a choice for resistance and dissent on the ballot in November: “We have to end this toxic cycle of abuse, because they have people spellbound into thinking that there is no way to resist, but you absolutely can resist right now by voting Green.”