VOL. 131 | NO. 199 | Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein told a group of Memphis supporters this week that she didn’t become politically active until she was 50 years old. But she had been active long before that in “social movements” where the focus was a cause and not necessarily a candidate.

Stein draws a distinction between the two as she is attempting to capitalize on undecided voters who can’t yet make a decision on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton or Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“I was apolitical altogether. I was an activist so I was working on social movements,” Stein told a group of 100 supporters at a Monday, Oct. 3, appearance at Amurica Studios in Crosstown. “But I refused to have anything to do with the Democratic or Republican parties because they all seemed so corrupt to me.”

She campaigned Monday evening in Oxford, Mississippi.

“We have to demand justice. We have to demand it in the voting booth,” she said. “If we give them a path in the voting booth they will steamroll over everything we are doing out in the street. We have to take this fight into all of the fronts, including the political battle. … Bring the social movement into the political battle.”

Stein’s political debut was her unsuccessful 2002 run for governor of Massachusetts as the Green-Rainbow Party candidate while serving on the Lexington, Massachusetts town council.

Before that, Stein, a physician, protested coal plants in Massachusetts and served on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility among other activities.

“The problem is, if we only work on causes and we don’t change the system of power that is throwing us under the bus,” Stein said after the rally, “the work on social causes will just get steamrolled by a flick of the pen in Congress, which can just send our jobs overseas or create the Trans Pacific Partnership. … If we don’t also fight this power grab by an economic and political elite, there’s not much hope for change. We’ve got to get political.”

Stein painted Clinton and Trump as no choice for voters in what she termed a “voter revolt.”

She called for a “Green New Deal” of infrastructure projects and a rapid transition away from coal and natural gas to renewable energy sources as well as organic food production and public transportation.

She also discounted Libertarian presidential contender Gary Johnson, whom she is trying to arrange a debate with, as well as trying to break into the television debates between Trump and Clinton.

“We’re the only show in town,” Stein said in comparing her campaign to Johnson’s. “He’s keeping his head down. He doesn’t want people to know there is another option. He gets on corporate media because he’s not such a threat. He’s just corporate politics on steroids. We are the only real alternative out there.”

Stein and vice presidential running mate Ajamu Baraka are one of seven presidential tickets on the Nov. 8 Tennessee ballot. In Tennessee, the Democratic and Republican tickets are the only ones with a party designation. The other five tickets, including the Libertarian ticket of Johnson and running mate William Weld, are listed as independent candidates.

Most in the Memphis crowd lined up to have their picture made with Stein in the Amurica trailer – a popular setting for Memphians on the town for a social event, but a different kind of setting for photos with a political contender.

That is usually the domain of the selfie, which has eclipsed the autograph and handshake when a candidate works a crowd at the end of a rally. The more formal fundraiser picture for a contribution is usually in front of a black curtain of some kind or maybe a campaign-themed backdrop with an American flag present in some way.

Stein did not accept donations for the Amurica photos, which were against the backdrop of an American flag surrounded by abundant Christmas lights. But all of the normal props in the trailer, from a plastic lobster claw to a megaphone to a band hat, were removed. The only props were “Jill Stein for President” signs and they were optional.