Tomás Ó Flatharta

Every state is a battleground
— Read on solidarity-us.org/every-state-is-a-battleground/

Howie Hawkins is the Green Party Candidate in the USA 2020 Presidential Election.

He eloquently presents the case against making a “lesser evil” choice between the two wings of one American Capitalist Party – the Republicans and the Democrats.

“Recognizing the danger of Trump does not mean that electing any damned Democrat should trump all other considerations. The Democrats might beat Trump, but they won’t beat Trumpism. The Democrats should have crushed Trump in a landslide in 2016 because the hard right Republicans he reflects are a shrinking political minority in the US. But the Democrats have lost many state governments and federal offices to the Republicans.

In office, the Democrats join the Republicans to support the basic policies that the capitalist class cares about: neoliberal economic austerity at home and neoconservative imperialism abroad. Most working people don’t vote because neither capitalist party is credible to them on issues of peace and prosperity.

Instead of depending on the soft-right Democrats to fight the hard-right Republicans, the most effective way to fight the right is to build an independent left movement and party with its own program, actions. and candidates. That is the priority of my presidential campaign.

As I campaign, I discuss the differences between Democrats and Republicans and the extreme danger of Trump. I also draw distinctions among the Democrats. I point out that Sanders is far closer to the Greens on many issues than all the rest of the Democrats. See, for example, my article “Which Green New Deal?”

Recognizing those distinctions does not lead me to support one capitalist party over the other — or to support Sanders, who is recruiting independent socialists and progressives into a capitalist political party. He is misrepresenting socialism as New Deal liberalism. He is again committed to supporting whoever the Democratic nominee is.

One difference among the Democrats is that the corporate wing will not commit to returning the favor of support to Sanders. Barack Obama has made it known that he is opposed to a Sanders nomination. Hillary Clinton recently and very publicly refused to say whether she would support Sanders if he is the nominee. The signers of this letter have bigger problems inside the Democratic Party than they do with the Greens.”