Having slammed the Greens, I suppose I should note that the other third party candidate, the one who might actually have some effect in driving down Republican votes, Gary Johnson, had what he called "an Aleppo moment" yesterday, though "Sarah Palin moment" would have been more appropriate. When asked to name a foreign leader he respected, he not only couldn't do that, he couldn't name any foreign leader. Which is, you know, kind of remarkable considering the state he was governor of shares a border with an actual foreign country, Mexico. And this is someone who is seriously presented in the media as an actual candidate for president of the United States. Well, after his sniffing and waffling through a presidential debate, they're still presenting Donald Trump as a viable candidate, aren't they?
Third parties in the U.S. are a joke only they're no laughing matter. I'd like to know what Jill Stein's answer would be. Her answer, apparently, might be Vladimir Putin, something she shares in common with Donald Trump.
This is also the year, seeing how so many heroes of the alleged left have a thing for Putin, Stein, Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald, obviously Edward Snowden, and that they share that with Donald Trump and some of his overtly neo-fascist supporters, I've got to wonder how they could figure he's some admirable world figure while thinking the Clinton Foundation - which does things like fight AIDS in Africa - is the very font of evil. I would love to have some journalist pin down Jill Stein or Julian Assange on a series of questions about that. I'd also love to know what financial ties there might be between such figures and the oligarchic government of Putin.
Consider how frequently the alleged left has held a preference for even the worst of foreign despots and dictators, all time champion mass murderers such as Stalin and Mao, over the most liberal presidents and politicians American democracy produces. That's something that has happened ever since Franklin Roosevelt was slammed by various Marxists and radicals, even as many of them were signing onto letters praising Stalin and defending his show trials and executions of his political rivals. In this years Greens' and Jill Stein's choice of the total crackpot and nutcase Ajamu Baraka to be her one heartbeat away from the presidency, an off kilter free-lance lefty huckster who knows he can get attention and who knows what else by hating on even such people as Bernie Sanders.
Apparently getting elected by Americans is what it takes to earn you the enmity of these guys. Apparently they feel little to no such hostility for the choices of voters in Russia or other places with less than open elections or governments.
Apparently any politician who actually wins an American election, even the most liberal of them, will face the hostility of the Green type of left. Though Jill Stein is in no danger of that happening to her - her pristine, purity will never have to face the oxidants of actually having to govern or legislate - I would imagine if she won she would come under the knee-jerk attention of the likes of her own vice presidential choice.
That's another advantage of play-politics, you never have to actually do anything, all you have to do is babble and tell stories that chill and thrill and gratify the prejudices of your audience, you never have to pay any price or face any difficult decision, you never have to do anything but blab what the tiny, fringe audience who might support you will want to hear and bask in their silly adulation. That's what American third-party politics boils down to. It is a play-time activity indulged in by people who don't really care about anything except striking a pose, maintaining a posture, asserting their own purity and brilliance. And in such circles, they don't really care about the reality of life under Putin or even under a Mao or Stalin. The list of present day heroes of such purity politicos who have almost as a reflex supported or endorsed some of the worst dictators of recent times is a long one. The same are as ready to slam even the most liberal American politicians over wrongs far less and even when they do something admirable. And yet they wonder why they can't gain more support among the voters.
I would bet that most of the Gary Johnson supporters wouldn't see it as disqualifying if he actually didn't know the names of any foreign leaders. I mean, you did see what the Libertarian convention is like. Yes, that is the party that the American media actually presents as something other than a surreal joke. You wonder if Johnson knows who Vladimir Putin is. Or maybe it just slipped his mind while stoned. It leads me to think that it might not be the best thing in the world for the man who travels with the nuclear codes to be a pot-head. Or perhaps under the influence of other drugs. But this is about third parties and their candidates.
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