September 14, 2020

The Founders of The Environmental Movement Have a Message: Don't Vote For The Green Party

Source: Daily Beast

A group of some of the most revered and longest-active environmentalists issued a dire warning to the next generation of activists on Monday: Don’t vote for the Green Party this year. And don’t sit out the election either.

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What’s different in 2020 is the fresh proof of Obama’s argument. The margins by which Trump won the three critical Midwest states—Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—were all smaller than the total vote counts for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. And for those who have been in the trenches of environmental battles over the past five decades, the risk of it happening again are petrifying.

“If you don’t get somebody in office that you can work with, then protests and demonstrations don’t make a difference,” said Earth Day founder Denis Hayes, a letter signatory. “I’d much rather have somebody I can work with than a symbolic vote.”

“There is a strong motivation among disillusioned radical young people to vote third party now or sit out the election,” added Peter Harnik, the coordinator of Environmental Action, a pioneer activist environmental organization. “We felt like we've been there and done this in the past. This is not the election to make a purity statement.”

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-founders-of-the-environmental-movement-have-a-message-dont-vote-for-the-green-party?ref=home

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This is one particular and especially grievous and urgent instance, but recent history teaches us that making purity statements in general ends up doing more harm than good.