I’m wracked with concern and imagine you are too.
The cold war ginned up by the military-industrial-media complex has predictably turned hot and threatens to draw nuclear superpowers into a face-off, each with provisions for using world-ending nuclear weapons. It’s almost too much to bear, as this compounds the crises brought to us by the bipartisan establishment that loom larger than ever – from climate collapse to crushing inequality, unraveling democracy and much more. Clearly we need independent politics, outside of the parties of war and Wall Street, like never before!
In short, I need to raise $40,000 in the next three weeks to pay down unfair fines just handed down against the campaign.* This would relieve the pressure on me to leave the political fight and resume a day job to repay mounting campaign obligations.
Walking away now would feel like abandoning ship in this hour of deepening crisis and rising rebellion. And that would be heartbreaking for me personally. As a former Green Party presidential candidate, I’ve continued to leverage hard-won media visibility to challenge oligarchy and empire, and keep building the movement for people, planet, and peace over profit.
With Democrats joining Republicans, in fact leading the charge, for war, fossil fuels and deportations, and abandoning promises for a $15 minimum wage, student debt cancellation, drug cost relief and more, it’s critical to keep our higher vision in the mix. And with growing disgust towards the political establishment, this is not the time to step back from the fight.
You may recall, we are also taking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to court to defend independent politics – demanding fair access to federal matching funds for alternative grassroots candidates. This is in response to the FEC’s recent decision demanding I personally repay over $175,000 in federal matching funds we used to get on the ballot over five years ago, which would further tip an already tilted playing field against alternative candidates. While this fight is now in the capable hands of our legal team, I want to continue supporting it as visibly as possible.
So our fight continues on many fronts. Your contribution now would reduce the pressure on me to resume a day job to pay down mounting campaign obligations, a move that would effectively remove me from the public struggle for years to come.
So far the response from our supporters has been wonderful. Pledges to help us meet the $40,000 to push back on the fines have brought us nearly two thirds of the way in just days.
Thanks for considering pitching in, and for all you do for the peaceful, just, green future whose time has come!
All my best,
Jill Stein
Green Party Presidential nominee 2012, 2016
*These fines are for post-election reports that were filed late due to the FEC’s defective free filing software. In the absence of additional, expensive private filing services, the FEC’s free software commonly “falters”, in the words of the FEC’s own software study. when campaign reports reach the size we attained after the surge of recount donations. It was at that point, after the election, that the FEC software began to fail, making it virtually impossible to file timely reports.