Oct 17, 2010

MA: Jill Stein Op-Ed in the Boston Globe

Jill Stein is the Green-Rainbow party candidate for governor in Massachusetts.  From Jill Stein's op-ed in the Boston Globe:

YOU DON’T need me to tell you that things are not going well in Massachusetts. We’re struggling with record unemployment, crushing underemployment, struggling schools, an unraveling environment, unfair taxes, and unaffordable health care. And we have a state government that can’t seem to fix anything.

With politicians failing to get the job done, you’d think voters would rise up and vote them out. But with lobbyists and big money controlling elections, people are rarely given a choice to vote for real change. Voters have been pummeled with the idea that they can’t break with the two-party system no matter how badly it treats them.

The result? Despite all the noisy rhetoric in the governor’s race, Beacon Hill lobbyists and insiders aren’t worried about the outcome. The fix is in. They know that both frontrunners will defend big money interests. I got into this race so voters could have real change with a clean money candidate who has never been a Beacon Hill insider. The defenders of the status quo have responded with the shopworn “spoiler’’ argument. They’re telling voters who want to vote for me that Charlie Baker is so bad that they have to vote for Deval Patrick instead to keep Baker from winning. They drive this home with negative campaigning that demonizes Baker as the enemy of all things good. If you buy their spoiler argument, political free speech has been taken from you. You’ll have to just shut up and vote your approval for four more years of business-as-usual. . . .

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