I’m sitting here amused, terribly amused. I’ve had multiple laughs at all the transgender ideological purists who insisted that voting for Stein and Ware was the only moral choice. However, not only did Green Party candidate Butch Ware throw trans people under the bus, but Stein isn’t contradicting him, which makes her complicit. And then, he talks about limiting access to abortion at 16 weeks. What a winner. Such a champion of women and trans people. Note that while Stein says she supports reproductive freedom, she’s said nothing about Ware’s comments. That silence is deafening this close to election day.

Plus. you have to be daft if you add in the realities of American politics – no 3rd party candidate matters. If you vote third party, you’ve wasted your vote. I don’t like this but it will take constitutional amendments to remove the winner-take-all system that sits in place now, and constitutional amendments to take much of the procedure for voting out of the hands of the states before we can move beyond two parties.

Anyway, you do have that right to waste your vote, and most of my friends are white and cishet, so they have all that privilege too. But let’s examine the reality.

1. A vote for any third party candidate ensures that the killing in Gaza continues. That’s a fact. Don’t tell me you “care” about Palestinians if you voted third party. The only thing that third party voting does is to salve your own conscience, so don’t come at me with how much you care about ANY marginalized group. If you cared, you’d take a path that could create a change.

2. A vote for Trump is already predetermined because Trump has publicly said he wants Netanyahu to “finish the job” and he thinks that land would make great condos not far from the beach. Again, don’t tell me you care about Palestinians if you voted for Trump.

3. That leaves a vote for Harris, which has a possible range of impacts. Most likely in the short term, the killing in Gaza continues. In the longer term, however, Kamala Harris might be convinced to force Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire. This is the only path that has that possibility. Yes, it’s not even the most likely outcome but it IS a possibility.

Ergo, the only vote that really cares for the Palestinian people is a vote for Harris-Waltz. Of course then we have to work on Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and Democratic Senators and Congresspersons, but at least it’s possible. Any other vote is a guarantee for the genocide to continue without end or get even worse.

So you never convinced me that voting for Stein was really about caring for the Palestinian people. You just screamed “genocide” irrationally as if that would change my mind. But if we do look at this rationally, we discover that the only vote that possibly could help the Palestinian people is the vote for Harris.

And now… now we have Butch Ware throwing trans people under the bus and Jill Stein refusing to discuss it, which makes her complicit. And Ware then throws women under the bus saying he supports restrictions on abortion. He’s either a wanna be Republican or incredibly incompetent and I’m not sure which is funnier, sadder, and more frightening.

As it turns out, your “purity politics” vote turned out to be rotten clear to its core. And I could have told you that before you wasted your vote. In point of fact, I did tell you that. I told you repeatedly Stein was a “professional candidate” and she runs for president periodically to raise campaign funds to live off during non-campaign years. I’ve pointed out that she’s close to Putin, who is killing Ukrainians, about whom you don’t seem to give a damn.

Consequently, I am greatly amused at your choice and the fallout from your choice to support the Green Party because they’re not “genocidal”. Well, guess what? They side with the GOP in hating trans people. Good move, huh? And Stein hasn’t directly contradicted Ware on women’s reproductive rights either, has she? So the Green Party is no friend to women either.

I’d ask if some of you felt the least bit of shame for supporting Stein, but your egos are too big for that. Too “ideologically pure” despite what Ware and Stein just did to trans people and to women. Too full of hate for any result except instant perfect justice which never happens in the real world. Real justice gets messy, takes time, and is uncomfortable.

Was Harris a perfect candidate? Hardly, and I freely admit that. But she’s miles better than Trump will ever be, and, she’s open to change. Further, as Black women have repeatedly taught me, it’s important to minimize harm even if we can’t stop all harm. And a vote for Harris is the vote that minimizes harm for the most number of other marginalized groups, both here and abroad.

But I think we’ve now established that voting for Stein is a shitty vote. And now it’s your shitty vote that you have to live with. You can ignore me. I wonder if you can silence your own conscience over what your precious “Green” Party thinks of trans people and of women. Oh, by the way, this same criticism and analysis applies to those of you that didn’t vote “because of Gaza”. You may never be able to vote again.

At his point, I’m confident in concluding that voting for the Green Party or not voting at all was pretty fucking stupid.

https://www.advocate.com/election/jill-stein-running-mate-transphobia