It’s time to reject the “politics of fear,” and embrace third-party alternatives in American politics.
That was the message Ajamu Baraka had for an audience at Detroit’s Wayne State University on Tuesday.
Baraka, a longtime political activist who founded the U.S. Human Rights Network, is the Green Party candidate for vice president. He and running mate Jill Stein will appear on the ballot in 45 states, including Michigan.
Baraka says he and Stein represent an opportunity to “break the two-party monopoly” on government.
He says both Republicans and Democrats favor “neo-liberal, trickle-down” economic ideas, and “the commitment to U.S. domination that is leading us to a war.”
Baraka called Donald Trump an outlet for “white nationalist voices of hate, while dismissing Hillary Clinton as a “war-mongering, right-wing political hack.”
And he rejected the notion that a strong Green showing could help elect Trump.
“The ruling class is now coalescing around Hillary Clinton. Which means that her administration, in very many ways, can be even potentially more dangerous than Donald Trump,” Baraka said.
If the Greens manage to “seize power,” Baraka says a Stein administration would implement an “emergency jobs bill” via executive order. They would also go on a “peace offensive” to “de-escalate tensions around the world.”
After his stop in Detroit, Baraka will meet with Flint residents and visit Rev. Edward Pinkney, the Benton Harbor political activist now serving up to ten years in prison for election forgery. The Stein campaign calls him a “political prisoner.”
Baraka then heads to Grand Rapids, where he’ll watch the final presidential debate and speak at Grand Rapids Community College.
