'It’s one big happy Demo-Republican party. And let’s not fool ourselves for a moment that Hillary has the solution. As Bernie Sanders himself said repeatedly, the only real solution to this crisis of right-wing extremism that Donald Trump represents—and he’s certainly not the only one—the real solution is truly radical, progressive policies that are represented by the Green Party.'













Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! explains again the process, in this second presidential debate: “We spend the rest of today’s show airing excerpts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate and give Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Again, Dr. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer.”





Pay attention to the justified puzzlement of Jill Stein at the start of her response. Stein wants to speak about the substance of politics, about the serious issues that concern the American people and the world. Yet, the bipartisan puppets in this second debate, managed to reduce further the quality of the political discussion. They started directly to attack each-other, but their arguments were based mostly on personal attacks, on the absence of a substantial, truly political dialogue that would focus on specific policies to deal with specific problems.





Compared to the first debate in which the bipartisan candidates were restricted to identify serious issues, without giving an idea of how they will deal with them, this second debate proved the degree that the US political system has been degenerated.





Stein, however, focused on the real politics and showed once again her qualitative superiority against the establishment candidates. She spoke about an entire generation that is locked in debt. About Black Lives that are struggling for safety. About millions of immigrants that are living in fear of deportation. She also spoke about the catastrophic wars for oil that have been held all the previous years, but also under Obama administration. Those wars that are bankrupting the US budget.





Key points:





What we’re hearing, as this debate opens, is the candidates go at it about their personal histories, about Hillary’s emails, about Donald’s despicable, abusive behavior and language towards women. And yes, this is all, you know, fair terrain, but it’s shameful that this has to be the focus of the discussion here. The American people have very serious issues before us, and we need to get past this debate over whether Hillary or Donald is more corrupt, who has the more offensive history.





An entire generation is locked in debt. Black lives are struggling for safety, walking down the street or driving down the street. Millions of immigrants are living in fear of deportation. Donald Trump has shown that the Republicans are the party of hate and fearmongering, but the Democrats are the party of deportation, detentions and night raids.





We have wars for oil that are massively expanding, have no end. The Obama administration is now bombing seven countries. This is bankrupting our budget. Half of our discretionary budget is being spent on these wars, which are not making us more safe, but rather less safe. Almost half of your income taxes are going to this massive Defense Department, which is not really not a Defense Department, it is an offense department.





It was the Clintons who dismantled Aid to Families with Dependent Children—that is, the major social safety net—throwing over a million families and children into poverty. The Clintons actually passed—and I mean Bill signed, but Hillary supported—NAFTA, which sent millions of jobs overseas, and Wall Street deregulation, leading to the economic meltdown and, in fact, the miserable economic conditions that have led to the rise of Donald Trump.





Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump gets into the White House—and let’s hope neither of them do—but there needs to be a strong movement and a strong political voice to that movement to continue fighting against this rule by the economic and political elite that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump represent.





Donald Trump made the point that he takes advantage in every way of tax deductions and pays as little taxes as possible, and that Hillary’s donors do that, as well. I think that statement is kind of a microcosm of a larger dynamic here, which is that one candidate represents the billionaire class, the other candidate represents the donors—or, I should say, her donors represent that billionaire class. I’m the only candidate in this race that does not take money from lobbyists, from corporate interests, and that does not have a super PAC. So, that liberates me to actually represent what the American people desperately and urgently need.









Full transcript:







