Now that Hillary Clinton is the official Democratic nominee, a significant number of Bernie Sanders supporters are gravitating to Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who seems happy to have them.
The question is whether support for Stein will have any impact on the outcome of the election and if she’s capable of picking up where Bernie left off.
Clare Foran writes at The Atlantic:
Can Jill Stein Lead a Revolution?Jill Stein takes public transportation to the Democratic National Convention. On the day after Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to win a major party presidential nomination, the Green Party presidential candidate is on the subway en route to the Wells Fargo Center. Adoring fans spot her on the way over and demand selfies. A heavily tattooed woman complains to Stein: “It’s been a Hillary party the whole time. It’s like brainwash, like waterboarding. It’s awful.”Stein is in high demand. The populist progressive tells me that after Bernie Sanders endorsed Clinton two weeks ago, effectively ending his insurgent campaign for president, a lot more people started paying attention to her campaign. “The floodgates opened,” Stein says. “I almost feel like a social-worker, being out there talking to the Bernie supporters. They are broken-hearted. They feel really abused, and misled, largely by the Democratic Party.”It’s hard to miss the anger and frustration. At the start of the week, Sanders supporters took to booing the mere mention of Clinton’s name at the convention. Dozens of die-hards even staged a dramatic walkout after Clinton won the nomination. Stein insists that she feels their pain.“I think the Democratic Party is really struggling right now,” she says. “It’s become a zombie party.”The Green Party candidate styles herself as a successor to the Sanders campaign. And she has been making the rounds in Philadelphia in the midst of the Democratic convention. When Sanders supporters protested Clinton’s nomination, Stein was spotted in the crowd. On Tuesday, she showed up at a Bernie-or-Bust rally in downtown Philadelphia, reminding the crowd: “Whatever happens, you know my campaign is here. We are going to continue this movement.”
Stein’s speech suggests she really wants the job of being the new Bernie:
Her Twitter feed also makes her position pretty clear:
Why wouldn’t she win Bernie voters? She sounds just like him.
Featured image via YouTube.
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