In case you missed it, 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein stopped by Riverside City College on Wednesday, March 15 to deliver a message of activism and progressive politics.

I had an opportunity to meet with Stein shortly before her speech. Here’s what the physician had to say.

How are things going under President Donald Trump? Is it the same, better or worse than you expected?

“I think it’s as bad as one could have imagined and in many ways, we’ve gone from the frying pan into the fire. The terrible things that are happening are not entirely new. They’re just more, they’re more vicious. They are more devastating and they’re happening much faster.

“I think a lot of people didn’t expect Trump was going to win. So people were not thinking real concretely about what would happen. But I think now that it’s happened, people have to think really hard and long about what kind of government we want. And many people I think are realizing that Donald Trump’s votes were not so much for him … they were against the legacy of the Clintons and the Democratic Party, which sent our jobs overseas, which oppressed workers, which was conducting a war on immigrants even then, which was wasting half of our discretionary dollars on wars for oil that were only increasing, whether it was Democrats or Republicans.

“Students locked in debt, the crisis of gentrification and homelessness. These are have proceeded at a pace under Democrats and Republicans and I think add to that the climate emergency, which is getting worse now, but it was also getting worse under Obama because all of the above turned out to be worse than drill baby drill. And when while the Paris accords were being signed, you had the ban on fossil fuel exports being lifted.

“So we were in trouble no matter what. That trouble has accelerated and people are realizing we need a system change and we need a new kind of politics that’s for the people, not for the big money.”

Where does the Green Party fit into the resistance to the Trump agenda? Can you work with the Democrats to resist Donald Trump?

“Well I think we very much are working together out there on the street – that the resistance is about resisting not just Trump, but this whole system ruled by the economic elite, by the predatory banks and the fossil fuel giants and the war profiteers.

“Where Greens and Democrats part ways is whether we’re going to be controlled by corporate money. And what we saw at the DNC elections – not only was the reform candidate rejected, Keith Ellison, but the proposal to ban corporate money was also rejected.

“So those who really claim to be opposing Trumpism have to pull the weed up by the roots. It’s not enough to just pull up the stalk. You’ve got to get to the roots. We’ve got to take back democracy. We’re not taking back democracy if corporate money is still ruling the day.

“That’s why so many from the Bernie movement have come over. And again, since the DNC rejected the principles of political integrity, more people are coming over. So the Green Party is going like gangbusters. In my mind, it’s not the label that matters. It’s whether or not you are being dictated to by corporate money in the back room. That’s the critical question.”

Are you considering running for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2020?

“I am certainly going to be fighting to the fullest of my ability. And whether that is running for president, running for some other office, or helping other people run, I describe myself as a mother on fire. We don’t forget that we have a world that’s going down in flames and that we have a generation locked into debt that can’t get out of it and a climate that’s going down the tubes rather rapidly.

“So my every waking moment is spent trying to create a world that will work for all of us, because it’s slipping through our fingers rather quickly.”