Green Party offers real alternative

Amid the fog that is the 2016 presidential election, one sentiment has presented itself clear day after day: a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is a choice of the lesser of two evils.

Two social media phrases trending recently include #NeverTrump and #BernieorBust. The solution to this problem for progressive Democrats and independents? Jill Stein.

Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, champions the very ideals that the Bernie Sanders campaign fought for in the Democratic Party. The biggest difference between Sanders and Stein, as Stein points out, is that "[Bernie] was trying to have a revolutionary campaign in a counterrevolutionary party. I'm basically inside a revolutionary party that supports this agenda."

What is Jill Stein's platform? She supports an aggressive agenda combating climate change, ensuring higher education to be tuition free, canceling student debt, promoting a pacifist, human-rights-based foreign policy, and protecting the basic civil liberties promised to every human being, regardless of religion, gender, sexual orientation or race.

What does this mean to the Bernie or Bust movement? She's Bernie. Sixty percent of Americans want a new major political party. Over 12 million Americans cast a vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primaries. If the citizens of this country are serious about securing democracy and standing up for their ideals, Jill Stein offers a breath of fresh air.

Zach Carter

Mundelein