A rally for “people, planet, and peace” took place at the Mercury Cafe downtown
Green Party Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein visited Colorado on Oct. 12, stopping in Denver and Longmont. Her Denver stop was at the Mercury Cafe, where she spoke with The Metropolitan.
During the beginning of the event, Jason Call, Stein’s campaign manager, warmed up the crowd.
“When we cast that vote against genocide and for all the good things that are possible in this country, we know we are on the right side of history. We are on the right side of history!”
Stein began her remarks with, “Thank you, thank you everybody… Thanks to all of us for being this unstoppable force, to end genocide, end empire, end oligarchy, and create an America and a world that works for all.”
“It is time, is it not? It is time for a transformation of our political system,” Stein said.
“Are you feeling like it’s happening?” she asked, to cheers, whoops, and claps from the crowd.
Moving straight into her speech, Stein said, “The genocide in Gaza is a symbol- it is a symbol of the darkest hour that we have ever known in our lives.” She continued, ‘It is unparalleled what is going on in Gaza. Now, with the extension of Israel’s brutal assault into the West Bank, in the Northern Gaza, into Lebanon… the U.S. and Israel are now contemplating some kind of an assault on Iran, which is unbelievably dangerous.”
“Kamala Harrris hasn’t told us much about her policy, but what she has told us is that she regards Iran as the greatest threat to the U.S.- which is absolutely ridiculous.” Stein said
“This could be a flashpoint for a World War III,” she warned.
Tying her concerns about military expansion to the environment and domestic conditions, Stein said, “The Green New Deal, by the way, happens on day one, because the president can declare an environmental emergency. It unleashes then over half a trillion dollars every year in funding to create jobs.”
“Our Green New Deal is sometimes called a demilitarized Green New Deal, because we’re transitioning not only from fossil fuels.- We’re also transitioning from this over militarized economy into a sustainable economy.”
She continued, “A military economy is not sustainable, and that’s the bottom line with the Green New Deal. So we will be transitioning people, not leaving them high and dry, but we will be providing people with jobs that are far more secure and healthy than what you’re doing right now in the military.”
The Metropolitan interviewed Stein, and asked about a few issues.
In terms of higher education, Stein said, “We will cancel student debt. You shouldn’t have lifelong debt to have the skills you need to survive in today’s economy — That should be a birthright.”
“Post-high school education, whether professional skill, technical skill, or a higher degree, that should be covered. Education makes us stronger, it is an investment in our economy. It should be free, the existing debt should be canceled.”
According to the Debt Collective, an anti-debt union, the executive branch via either the president or the Secretary of Education has the authority to unilaterally cancel all existing federal student loan balances. This authority was granted by Congress in the Higher Education Act of 1965 and amended in 1986.
Stein stated that Democrat and Republican presidential candidates both adopt “A predatory kind of politics which is all about serving their big donors, it’s all about serving who are most well off — the upper 1%.”
“That’s who funds them, there’s a saying ‘who funds you runs you’, and that’s how those parties are designed,” she said. “This is exactly why the system needs to change. This is a campaign that walks the walk, we don’t just talk the talk. We do not accept that money.”
According to data retrieved from Open Secrets, a nonpartisan research group that tracks how campaigns are funded, as of Oct. 12, the 2024 presidential race has collected over $1.24 billion in total candidate fundraised dollars so far.
Harris’ campaign has raised 685 million dollars, Trumps’ campaign has 306 million dollars, and Stein’s campaign has received 1.8 million dollars of that billion-plus dollar pie.
Of the total candidate-direct war chest, Harris is working with ~55.27%, Trump is working with ~24.73%, and Stein is working with ~0.14%.
Those figures do not include outside funds, such as those from PACs and other mega-donor entities.
According to the same data, Harris narrowly edges Trump in outside funds — roughly 336 million outside dollars have been committed to her campaign whereas Trump has roughly 335 million outside dollars and Stein has exactly zero outside dollars.
“Half our congressional budget is spent conducting the endless wars which are absolutely catastrophic. And, we can only defeat that together,” Stein said.
“I got arrested at Washington University, standing up with the students to defend their encampment.”
According to Time magazine, she was released from jail several hours after that arrest, on April 27.
The Metropolitan asked Stein what she envisions her campaign doing to advance queer and trans rights.
“There are queer and gender non-conforming people in our campaign. We see these issues as basic human rights,” she replied.“That includes medical care, complete care, it includes access to sports. It includes protection against discrimination in the workplace, in housing, in jobs, and so on. It entails standing up for the rights of the LGBTQ community as a very vulnerable portion of our population that needs to be defended.”
When asked about COVID and whether she would re-declare the national health emergency, Stein said, “As a medical doctor myself, I am very aware of what a complete public health catastrophe COVID was.”
“People do not understand or trust our regulatory institutions. People are on both sides — people who want more protections and
people who want less — and there is no point of agreement because we don’t trust the scientists who are on these regulatory boards. The first thing that I will do is create a commission on COVID and other infectious diseases… From my point of view, the most important thing is that we get the conflicts of interest out of our regulatory agencies so people can trust them. We need specialists we can trust who are not on the payroll of industry. We don’t want an EPA where the polluters are paying the bills. All of our regulatory agencies need to be protected from the revolving door so that people can’t move from industry to the regulator back to the industry. You’ve got to make up your mind, are you a public servant or are you a corporate servant?”
She finished with, “We need to bring trust back.”
