Spoiler Alert! Green Party running Jill Stein for President

Some people never learn. Some political parties too. This time, the Green Party is running Jill Stein, I'm sure a perfectly lovely person with good politics, who cares about all the right things, except one.  That one is helping move this country forward, by not running another spoiler. Of course, Jill does not have the gravitas or following of Ralph Nader, but seriously, do they think they can influence the conversation? Move the agenda in a more progressive direction? If so, they picked another boneheaded way to do it, in my humble opinion.

Why not support Bernie Sanders, a serious Democratic Socialist, with a track record in the U.S. Senate, who at the very least would never throw the race to the Republicans. And yes, I do blame Ralph Nader. Hanging chads, bad campaigning by Al Gore and bad decision making on the Democrats part in Florida 2000 notwithstanding.

A progressive Democrat-Green Party coalition around Bernie could be powerful. Could even be a game changer. But the Green Party is just playing tired old party politics like all the other parties before them, like the parties they rail against, only without the clout.

How do you get the clout? By running serious campaigns on the local level, school boards, City Councils, sewer boards, building up the farm team and then, and only then, going after the big offices.

Without numbers and a measure of success on the local level, no amount of political holier-than-thouism will advance the cause.

Bernie Sanders at anti-TPP rally

OK, in my NOT so humble opinion.