But what?
There are three candidates seeking the Green Party nomination. Harvard-trained physician Jill Stein is the frontrunner, based on the wins she's amassed in various state-level contests. An environmental-health expert, she's published well-regarded reports on pollutants that threaten child development and aging adults and lobbied for various environmental laws in her home state of Massachusetts. Her campaign's theme is a "Green New Deal," a wildly ambitious "integrated package of emergency reforms that will put 25 million people to work, end unemployment in America, halt the recession, jump-start the Green economy for the 21st Century, and combat climate change." As she sees it, "such a thing as ending unemployment would never occur to Washington politicians because their corporate backers depend on the threat of unemployment to keep wages down." It's a deeply confused claim.
Were Kent P. Mesplay elected president, the birthers would go crazy. Born in the Madang, New Guinea, to American parents in 1962, he didn't return to the United States until he was a pre-teen. "Kent is 1/16th Blackfoot by 'blood' according to the archaic way the U.S. government figures it, but that is only a beginning point for why Kent identifies so closely with indigenous peoples and their struggles around the world," his official bio states. "Living in the rainforest among the New Guineans for the first ten years of his life had the largest impact on his concern for a sustainable future for all peoples." Seeking the Green Party presidential nomination for the third time, he argues that the Stein's "Green New Deal" is too unrealistic. "My main rival touts a federal jobs program that is dependent upon raising corporate taxes and slashing military spending," he writes. "This will take time to implement, and lacks legislative support."
He says his own approach is "more workable":
• Focus on security arguments favorable to transforming our military into being trained to address the emergency conditions associated with drastic climate change (essential climate-related concerns include health care, emergency food production, the housing of masses of displaced citizens).
• Provide tax incentives for businesses providing goods and services that help us be more sustainable.
• Generate trustworthy bonds to stimulate investment in several key areas: renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation in housing and transportation.
• Small-scale organic agriculture.
Isn't it weird to point out that your opponent's agenda "lacks legislative support," only to run on transforming the U.S. military into a climate-change-response force and ending large-scale agriculture?
The last candidate is someone whose name you know: Roseanne Barr. The 1980s sitcom star and comedian is running as the Herman Cain of her political party, judging by her interview in Green Pages. "Listen, the fact that I'm not a politician isn't a drawback; it's an advantage," she states. "Do I need to know every micro-detail about a failed policy like our ridiculous 'War on Drugs' to know that anyone who wants to buy some recreational drugs can probably do it, and that all we're doing is making money for dangerous drug dealers and locking up users at a cost higher than a college education!" She goes on to state:
The drug laws are written for the benefit of drug lords! And it's a war on Marijuana smokers, mostly! YES THE EMPEROR IS NAKED AS A JAY BIRD -- HE NEEDS TO PUT SOME DAMN PANTS ON!
The only other thing she mentioned when asked about the issues most important to her: "I will obliterate the 'Two Party' System by becoming the first Green Party president of these United States as a result of our victory in the 2012 general election -- with 99 percent of the votes," she stated. "I also believe it's essential to do away with the Electoral College, a system created by the 1 percent of the 1 percent - the super 1 percent -- to enslave us all."