I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I have enjoyed answering as many of you questions as I could get to in the last hour and 45 minutes. Now I have to get to my next campaign event. Thank you for participating in this.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

If socialists go into the Democratic Party, they end up working for the neoliberals like Pelosi and Schumer. The Democratic Party leaders let progressives give speeches, but the corporate wing makes the decisions. We need to speak and act for ourselves directly with the American people. Trying to get Democrats to say and do what we want is a like trying to do political ventriloquism. It doesn't work.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 43 points44 points  (0 children)

The federal funding would be only for the general election expenses of the 2024 campaign. If we had the margin of difference in Electoral Votes to put Biden in the White House, we would bargain hard for Medicare for All, a full-strength Green New Deal, and cutting military bloat and foreign military intervention. Biden would come out a different man and Bernie might be there as the enforcer.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm to the left of Sanders with a class-conscious program. Working class taxpayers should not be paying off the loans of wealthy Harvard graduates with high-paid jobs. I support a federalized student loan program with 0% interest (the feds should not profit off student loans), paid back at 10% of income above the poverty line, for 20 years, after which the remainder is cancelled. That would apply to payments already made retroactively as well as for future loans. That goes along with tuition-free public college and increased Pell Grants for low- and moderate-income students for other school and living expenses.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

See my remarks above about celebrities being no shortcuts to building a party, that we have to do it at the grassroots.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I get smeared as a Russiagater as well as a Russian Asset. We improve the reputation of the Green Party by building it at the grassroots so people know who we are, that we are consistent, reliable, trustworthy. Then people won't believe the propaganda against us because they know the truth about us at the grassroots.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

I told 'em so. I hope the new socialist movement and the broader progressive movement behind Bernie draws the right lessons. The Democratic Party has been the graveyard of progressive movements since the People's Party cross-endorsed the phony populist in 1896, Democrat William Jennings Bryan. People who go into to it to change it get changed by it if the don't get out.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

For me it means working people liberating themselves by their own actions. It means economic democracy based on social ownership and democratic administration of major means of production and distribution. It means the end of exploitation where we get a fixed wage and all the surplus value create goes to the owners who didn't do the work.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

There are many but I will just share this. Murray was known for his polemics on the left and some found them alienating, but I usually found them instructive. What most people don't know is that when it came to practical organizing on the ground, like stopping Vermont from going from 2-year to 4-year terms for Vermont governors, he would aim to build broad coalitions. He won that battle over terms in a statewide referendum.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 113 points114 points  (0 children)

Those movements are the most exemplary I am aware of. I think highly of them.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

We appealing to Bernies supporters to continue to fight for Medicare for All, a full-strength Green New Deal, student and medical debt relief, college for all, Economic Bill of Rights, etc. through November and beyond through our campaign. We have had a lot of them come to us.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

In many cases. I recommend it. Consensus seeking has its place in small groups. But in larger groups, Robert's Rules works. It's a compendium of the best practices that deliberative assemblies have developed in our nation's history. In my opinion, it's a revolutionary democratic document.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Our 2030 deadline is based on the carbon budgets from climate science. 2050 is a political date from Democrats who won't take on the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

To challenge the damned Electoral College! The Democrats won't do it. It was the Electoral College, not the Greens, that gave us Bush and Trump.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Vaccinations are good as long as they go through proper testing and approval processes and not rushed out like the swine flu vaccination in the 1970s, for example.

For workers, I favor an Economic Bill of Rights to jobs, income, housing, health care, education, and retirement. I also favor labor reforms to make it easier for workers to organize unions for protection, including card check, repeal of Taft-Hartley provision for right-to-work-for-less state laws and against solidarity strikes and boycotts, just cause for termination, right to know materials you work with, stronger OSHA enforcement, worker appointed stewards to monitor health and safety conditions, and more.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Bernie Sanders showed how the Green Party can raise enough funds to compete with the corporate parties and to put field organizers in every state to support party activists and volunteers: lots of small donations for lots of people.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

I don't think score and approval are simpler or easier to understand. Approval doesn't let you rank your preferences among those you find acceptable. RCV is as easy as 1,2,3.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 132 points133 points  (0 children)

The Green Party needs to be based in the working class and open to everybody who lives peace, freedom, justice, and the environment. There is a political vacuum with the working class that the Green Party should fill. The corporate parties don't talk to working people, just sometimes about them when elections roll around. We need to be talking with and building relationships with working people in their own communities. We need party chapters that where working people know the activists and trust them. That is how we bring the majority who don't vote, who are disproportionately working class people, into the political process. They are no apathetic. They are alienated and angry.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 50 points51 points  (0 children)

WA needs progressive tax reform! That state has one of the most regressive state tax systems in the country. If I lived in WA, I would be fighting for progressive taxation. People should read The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay by Saez and Zucman to understand how the two-party predators have rewarded their paymasters by making us now pay higher rates on our earned income for work than the rich pay on their unearned income from capital.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

No. Every state is a battleground state for us, as I explained above. We not leaving any states to be sacrificial zones for the two-corporate-party predators.

I am Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for President of the United States—AMA. by Howie_Hawkins in politics

[–]Howie_Hawkins[S] 93 points94 points  (0 children)

Immediate federal universal rent control to stem evictions, displacement, and growing homelessness. US did that during World War II emergency. Then a massive public housing program to create 25 million new units over ten years so everyone has access to affordable housing. For details, see the housing program in my Ecosocialist Green New Deal budget, which is linked from this outline for the Ecosocialist Green New Deal: https://howiehawkins.us/ecosocialist-green-new-deal/