Good morning. Guest good morning. Host you are part of the original u. S. Green party and you are running for president. Tell us the history of the green party, how has it changed since 1984, and what does the party look like today . Guest we got started in 1984 after the german greens elected 35 people to their bundestag, their congress, and people around the world said maybe we should do that. We met in 1984 in st. Paul, minnesota and said, we cannot build this out of the president ial run. We have to start in local politics, and we proceeded to do that for the next dozen years. In 1996, ralph nader let us use his name on ballots for president. We got on over 30 ballots, and then he ran an active ballot in 2000 and we were on over 40 ballots. That put us on the national spotlight. We have been here 35 years and currently have 129 elected officials in local offices. It is one of the best kept secrets in american politics, more than any independent Progressive Party has. You have to go back to the heyday of the socialist party before the 1930s. What has changed is we have a lot of ballot lines running local candidates, a lot of experience, and our orientation politically has changed, not just advocating peace and environmental and Economic Justice reforms, we are talking structural changes to ecological structuralism. Host how many people would you say are in the green party as of today . Guest i think a ballpark would be half a million. We have about 250,000 enrolled or registered in the green party where you can do that, but you cannot do that in every state and we do not have a ballot line in every state. If you roughly double what we have, the states that we have the green party, it is half a million. Host cspan will be airing speeches from you and your running mate at 8 00 and 11 00 p. M. What has your Green Party Convention been like . How did the Green Party Convention party go and how does it differ from what the democratic and republican parties to . Guest we are similar. We have primaries and delegates are committed to states, and there will be a roll call today. I came in with the most committed delegates, so the rollcall should nominate me. That is very similar. With the coronavirus pandemic, we have had to do this virtually, so there has been an adjustment and we had to get the technology up. So far, it has gone smooth. We were originally going to be in detroit between july 9 and 12, but now we are online so that is different. Host now, you had been raising money to run for president. How has your fundraising been going for this years campaign, and how does it compare to what President Trump and former Vice President biden are doing right now . Guest they are going to raise billions. We are trying to get to our first million. It is one 1000th of a they are billion. On another order and magnitude order in magnitude in terms of financing. We raised over 200,000 and we just qualified for federal primary matching funds. We are the only campaign doing that. The democrats and republicans do not want to do that anymore, because if you accept that money you have to limit your spending to 50 million. They raised so much money they dont want that now. We are the only campaign in the country that has been trying, and this week we reached the threshold. We needed to raise 5,000 in 20 states and contributions of 250 or less. We will be submitting our application to the government next week and that will give us 250,000 back. Host lets talk about your platform. You have our cspan viewers out there right now wondering what is your platform for president and why they should vote for you. Give our viewers your pitch of why they should vote for you for president. Guest vote for us if you support our platform. Do not waste your vote on a platform you do not support. Do not silence your voice. What we are talking about our Real Solutions for life and death issues. The first is the covid pandemic. We have had a Record Number of people come down with infections yesterday. The chart is shooting through the roof in terms of infections and deaths, and we are six months into this. The two governing parties are presiding over a failed state. Why cant we do a test, trace, isolate program like other countries . Trump is a loser, covid wins, and he is like typhoid mary making his people sick. Where the hell is joe biden . He could be amazing using his voice, get the personal protective equipment and medical supplies that are in short supply in states like texas and florida and arizona. We have people out on the streets protesting the centuriesold pandemic of racism and police brutality, so not just reforming Police Practices but Community Control of the police so they work for us, not themselves. When they police themselves, they get away with murder. That is what we have been seeing. If we could take the Police Department and put it into social services, it will not be enough for these racially oppressed communities that have suffered generations of discrimination and exploitation. We want to defund the police and put it into a Marshall Plan for the city for jobs, education, schools. When i started out this campaign was the climate meltdown, trump calls Climate Change a hoax, but the democrats act as if it is a hoax. The proposal from the house said we will reduce Carbon Emissions by 37 by 2030 and that is not even what the International Group called for. We are calling for a full strength Green New Deal that has. Been our issue for the last 10 years. The democrats diluted the content. They are not calling for a ban on fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure. If we build that infrastructure we will be locked into decades more of burning fossil fuel and the planet will be cooked. It is a plan to get 20 to negative Carbon Emissions by 2030. The other issue is inequality. Life expectancy is decreasing, so we are calling for an economic bill of rights like roosevelt called for. Like the black freedom and civil rights movements called for in the that would include a job 1960s. Guarantee, guaranteed income above poverty, and medicare for all. We are calling for peace initiatives, 75 cut in military spending, getting out of these endless wars, pledging no first use of nuclear weapons, and then going to the other Nuclear Powers and saying we want complete nuclear disarmament, and agree to the treaty on a prohibition of nuclear weapons. The International Campaign got the Nobel Peace Prize for that three years ago and hardly anybody in the country knows that because none of the candidates are talking about this issue. It should be a top Campaign Issue and we intend to make it one. They are life or death issues. Host lets let our viewers join this conversation. We are going to open up our regular lines, democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. And we are going to open up a special line for green party members. We want to hear from you at 202 7488003. You can text us your opinion at that same number, 202 7488003. We are always reading on social media, twitter and facebook. Mr. Hawkins, i can tell you we are seeing different versions of this question popping up on our social media feed so i am going to summarize all of them for you. We are going to start by reading this from the new yorker if the green party insists on running a president ial candidate in the few states where it really matters, i hope people will not waste their votes. That is not because i think joe biden is a hero. That is because i think hes not only better than the alternative pushable. Sible politics begins once the votes are counted with less exciting business of prodding politicians to keep promises or opening up the political space for them to do what they want. In that world, which is always the real world, it is a chance have a politician jill stein won 1. 4 million votes in the last president ial election, and a lot of democrats say that if jill stein hadnt gotten those votes Hillary Clinton would be president. We are getting this form of question over and over isnt voting for a Green Party Candidate voting for donald trump because that will make him more likely to win . What is your response to those concerns. Guest a vote for the green party is a vote against donald trump. It is in another column. It is the thing you learn in first grade. That is just simple logic. The first question said politics continues after the election, and that is true, and if you want medicare for all and Student Debt Relief and progressive reforms that Bernie Sanders was championing, and you vote for joe biden, you are voting against those things and silencing your voice and giving away your leverage. You vote for the green party, Everybody Knows you stand for that and you will be heard. When i ran for governor of new york, i got 5 of the vote. Andrew cuomo wanted to run up the vote and get ready to run for president. He could not take us for granted. After that election, he adopted three demands we raised a ban on fracking in new york state, 15 minimum wage, and paid family leave, so if you want leverage after the election you have to vote for what you want and not be taken for granted. As jill stein goes, she brought new voters to the polls. 60 of her voters would not have come out and voted, would have stayed home. If you do the math, if that was true in michigan, she was at the margin. The democrats have got to stop blaming the greens for their own problems. It was not the greens that elected donald trump, it was the Electoral College, and we have been giving democrats the solution to the problem since ralph nader ran 2000, abolish the Electoral College and have president elected by rank Choice National popular vote. Joe biden is welcome to embrace that and that last two republicans got elected by losing the popular vote and installed by the Electoral College. You would think the democrats would address that problem instead of blaming it on the greens. We aint going away. Host lets go to the phones and let our viewers take part in the conversation. Garrett from gilbert, arizona on the green party line. Caller good morning. I live in gilbert and right next to a factory with air pollution. I know you are against nuclear weapons. What are your thoughts on Nuclear Energy as a Clean Solution . Guest it is dirty, dangerous, and uneconomical. It has been the most unsuccessful industrial enterprise since world war ii. Insurance will not ensure it, so we have the price anderson act. We have nukes in upstate new york. Epsilon wanted to shut them down because they were not making money and instead this state has subsidized them to the tune of 8 billion. We attempted to build nukes down and North Carolina and South Carolina with long guarantees from the obama administration, all of those projects have been shut down because of cost overruns and over time on the construction. They are in trouble. This is not a viable option. For the same money we might spend on Nuclear Power, we can inld more Power Generation solar and wind energy. Host you talked about your run for governor of new york, and you received i believe almost 5 of the vote if not more. How do you plan to win enough votes to make this a significant race for president . How do you get people to vote for you . Guest like i said earlier, vote for what you want. If you are for medicare for all and you vote for joe biden, you will get lost in the sauce. They do not know joe biden is you want medicare for all. Joe biden is against it, so make your voice heard. Make your vote count, dont waste it. That is why people should vote for us. It is real simple. If you dont vote for what you want, you are never going to get it. Host joe calling from whitman, massachusetts on the independent line. Caller hello. What are your thoughts on expanding to combat global poverty . Guest i did not quite hear. Caller the International Affairs budget to combat global poverty . Guest i am for a global Green New Deal. We talk about the new deal to convert to clean energy and provide basic economic human rights and we should expand that internationally. Instead of being the Global Military empire everywhere, intervening and getting behind cous and regime change, we should be helping countries, making friends instead of enemies, including helping all countries in the world meet their basic needs budgets for Elementary Education and Preventative Health care and clean water. That will do more to create world peace and address poverty. Yes, we should use it to help people in the world instead of trying to dominate them, and make the world safe for u. S. Based global corporations. Host cecil is calling from cary, North Carolina on the democrats line. Caller i have a problem with science. We dont apply science in this guys whats his name . Host mr. Hawkins, our guest . Caller he is a knight in shining armor because of the fact that solar when you depend on it, there is not one day in our life that we do not have the sun applied to the earth. We can have free energy in all sorts of ways, wave power, tidal power, we can make use of those things and we do not have to , spend money. We can make use of free power. Host go ahead and respond. Guest he is right. The only Nuclear Power plant we need is the fusion reactor in the sky called the sun. Solar, derivatives of solar like wind, Gravitational Forces like hydropower, that is Natural Energy all around us. Once you build the technology to harvest this Natural Energy around us, you do not have the fuel cost, so it is cheaper than burning fossil fuels. This is the way we have got to go, and it is imperative given the Climate Emergency we are facing that is an existential threat. People think it will be more heat waves and stronger storms. It is worse than that. It is mass extinction of andies, ecosystem collapse agricultural and ecological collapse, putting our civilization in danger. This is the imperative. We have to go solar. Host we have a question from a social media follower who wants to know does the green Party Support mailin ballots . Guest absolutely. I have said early, why the hell doesnt biden go down and demand a Quarantine Program to suppress this virus . While he is added, he should be demanding universal mailin ballot option so we can all vote in this pandemic. This election is problematic. We have already seen that in some of the primaries. There are not enough polling places because it tends to be older people who work the polls and they do not want to endanger their lives. We need this option and we need it now. I am absolutely for that, and im angry trump is against it because he does not want people to vote and thinks it is the only way he can win, but where the hell is joe biden . I have policy differences with him, and he talks about leadership and he is awol. Host mary is calling from syracuse, new york, on the green party line. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host i am doing fine. Go ahead. Caller i wanted to make a comment on the third parties stealing votes from the republicans or democrats, and we do see that we take more votes than the republicans. With the last president ial election, if you look at the numbers, especially with the amount of people who didnt vote, you are seeing a lot more people who were being disenfranchised by the twoparty system and do not feel their voice is counted so they are not voting at all. The amount of votes that were not placed would have won the election last year, so we need to have a conversation about why the twoparty system is not working, and how we can stop people from feeling disenfranchised, and be able to partake in the Voting System and feeling like their voices are heard. Host go ahead and respond, mr. Hawkins. Guest mary is right. There were 100 Million People who could have voted in 2016 but stayed home. They are disproportionally working class, people of color, and young people. I believe they are not apathetic, they are alienated. I have done a lot of thinkocking and people the two parties do not know what is going on with those folks. They do not know what the issues are and do not see those people except around elections, and are just alienated. That is where the future of the green party is. We want to bring those people into the process, because we think our platform speaks to their needs and concerns. We are going to bring more people into the process. The democrats are worried about us stealing the votes. We are going to get people who go down ballots and there are a lot of senate races and races where we do not have candidates. The greens are more likely to vote for democrats. They should get us on the ballot because we will help them out in some races. Host like any other party, you do have some intraparty battles going on. One of our social media followers wants to ask about that. He says your rivals in the green party have repeatedly accused you of using railroad tactics similar to that the dnc used on bernie in order to rig the green Party Primary and your campaigns favor. How do you respond to the accusations that you made the 2020 green primary antidemocratic . Guest it is not true. Each state party set up its own process. I have nothing to do with the process. In the processes they set up, i got the most votes. In politics, some people are sour grapes when they lose. You do have differences in all any political parties. Do not believe everything you read on the internet or see on a podcast. Host richard is calling from howard beach, new york, on the republican line. Richard good morning. , caller thanks for taking my call. One thing i noticed that was absent from mr. Hawkins policy points was the opioid crisis. He mentioned death by police brutality, which is important, but only a few hundred per year. There is a few hundred people dying per day in ohio and indiana and the appalachian states like west virginia, and a lot of suicide based on despair and lack of work. I want to know what the green party has to offer for people trying to solve this crisis, because i feel like this is one of the most important crises that we face as a country today. Guest yes, absolutely. We want to decriminalize all drugs except for marijuana, which we want to legalize like alcohol and tobacco. It is not as dangerous as those two drugs and it should be taxed and regulated. Other illicit drugs, we want to do like they did in portugal about 20 years ago. Instead of possessing an amount for personal use of an illicit drug, instead of getting a criminal charge, you are given a ticket. It is a violation and you meet with a lawyer, doctor, and social worker, and they look at your situation and see how they can help. We should treat drug addiction as a health problem, not a criminal problem. People are dying and opioid overdosesn opioid particularly heroin, because , they are going to the street instead of getting help and being charged with a criminal offense. That is the way to reduce opioid overdoses. In portugal, they hardly ever have any of those anymore. The drug crime has gone down and less people are using illicit, hard drugs then before. They call them deaths of despair because of the inequality. People have to choose between going to the doctor and paying the rent and they dont go to the doctor and it ends up killing them. There are people whose hopes and life are disappointed and they feel hopeless. They try to cope with drugs and alcohol or suicide. Life expectancy in this country is going down, which is a moral shame, inexcusable. We should not have poverty and economic despair in a country as rich as this. As far as drug policy, we want to decriminalize drugs and provide medical services and other services for people coping with unemployment and low wages by taking alcohol or other drugs. We think that is the best approach to the Opioid Epidemic as well as other problems with drug and alcohol abuse. There is a story in slate magazine pointing out that in europe, green is the new red. Haspes green rave wave not quested yet. When green partys throughout europe saw unprecedented success in European Parliament elections, it was clear that voters were responding to concerns about the Climate Crisis as well as a loss of confidence in the mainstream parties that have dominated politics for decades. Favorable to often protest votes and fringe votes and there were questions about whether the enthusiasm would last. Judging from recent election results, the infatuation has not faded. The greens appear on the verge of eclipsing old school or socialist party as the main electoral vote of the left. The green party is picking up steam across europe. Do you see that happening in the United States and are there the greene you see party picking up traction in the u. S. . Conditions here are similar to those in europe. In europe, green parties have been part of legislatures for decades now, part of governing coalitions. They hold ministries. In iceland, the Prime Minister is a green. It is a commentary on the antidemocratic nature of american politics that grains do not have a more prominent role at the local, state, and national level. The issue the greens are running on in europe are issues that resonate here. We have a Climate Crisis and an issue of Economic Justice. That is what the Green New Deal is about. The greens in europe run on that. We run on that. The polling shows 80 of American People want a Green New Deal, including 64 of republicans. The other area where greens have stood out in europe is they have not fallen for the antiimmigrant backlash that all ,he other parties have adopted and i think that has attracted voters that were socialist Party Supporters or labors a Party Supporters for the greens in europe. A lot of green saying we should release the immigrants who are detained from those cages, reunite families, l people get settled and process their immigration for asylum applications. Let the people camped out on the others the Mexican Border come in to do what they legally have a right to do. This is a crime against humanity going on at the border. At the border and if there is not a warrant, you go about your business. It could be shopping, vacation, work, or residence. We already have that in the European Union and Central American countries. A fairrder should be trade zone rather than a barrier. It serves to keep wages to present on the other side of the borderorder of the and use that threat as Companies Moving over to the other side to keep wages low. We should tear the board is down and let workers across orders and raise Living Standards on both sides of the border. York sandy, buffalo, new on the green party line. Good morning. I wanted to ask ally about what he plans to do for womens rights and whether we can get the equal rights amendment finally passed. Guest i think we are getting close. Have just a few states. Equal rights amendment, i think we need to codify roe v. Wade by congressional legislation so it is out of the hands of the Supreme Court and womens right to choose in the law. Those are the two immediate things. We have to enforce antidiscrimination laws more effectively. Gaptill have a income between men and women doing the same work, and that is another area where leadership in the federal government and justice prosecuting cases of discrimination against women in employment and wages is where we have a lot of room for improvement. Host lets talk to james, davenport, florida on the democratic line. Suggestion fora mr. Hawkins. I would suggest instead of emphasizing so much a president ial run for green party and other independent parties, particularly progressive parties and so forth, here in my county we have very important offices that are littleknown, like the soil and Water Conservation district, the Community Development districts, and Downtown Development districts. People do not bother to fill out a candidate information form. We have no idea who we are electing. They may be a nonpartisan position, but they hold a lot of power. What would be your thoughts . Guest i completely agree. If the green party is to become a major party and a force in american politics, we have got to build it from the bottom up. The greens should be electing thousands of people to local offices as we go into the 20 20s. The relevance of the president ial race to that project is that it is much easier to run if you have a ballot line. In 40 of the states, devote the president ial candidates get will determine whether the green party will have a ballot line for the next cycle. 2 , 3 . States it is 1 , that is an achievable goal. The emphasis has to be on building this thing from the bottom up, local offices and local districts and state legislators and congress. There will be no way they can ignore us. I am with you on that. Lets build this thing from the bottom up. Host i am going to ask a couple of quit questions from social media followers. I want to get these questions in before we run out of time. What is the green partys view . N judicial nominees many People Choose their nominees based on this issue. Here is a second question that says sadly most americans do not watch cspan and will not see this interview or any interview with mr. Hawkins or your running mate. How does a thirdparty candidate a shut out by Mainstream Media make up for that fact and reach more people . Guest do not underestimate cspan. We do have a problem with the Mainstream Media that act like state media for the corporate two party state, and they need to open up and not just cover the horse race but the issues. Brings in Real Solutions to these lifeanddeath issues and they deserve to be debated and that is the responsibility of good journalism. As far as courts go, one way to deal with the problem of these conservatives that have been appointed by the federal courts is by legislation. That is one thing. The courts react to the political environment they are in. Trump and conservatives have lost a number of cases in the Supreme Court in recent weeks and lower in federal courts. Docan impact what the courts by speaking up, and having social movements advocating for our rights, and courts have to take that into account. The courts are important. Lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court is something we need to review for ideological reasons. Residents appoint young men and they will be there for decades. That is probably not the best thing. We should have some turnover. There are ways of dealing with the court issue and it is an important issue. Host lets see if we can get a couple more colors. , dodge city, less kansas. How much youder know about farming and how much horsepower it takes for a big john dear tractor to plow a field or a kenworth semi truck or a bulldozer or a submarine for the navy that stays under water for 24 hours and an aircraft carrier. Do you know how how many horsepower it takes for big semis and directors to plow a field . Hundreds,lize that and you are not going to put a windmill on top of a tractor and plow a field. You will not put a windmill on top of a submarine and protect the navy and our country. I will bet you you drive a car and i bet you fly in an airplane too, dont you . Does take a lot of horsepower to run the machinery youre talking about, and a lot of that machinery uses electric motors. The question is where you are going to get the electricity from. Instead of fossil fuels, we can get it from an from renewables so the diesel provides the electricity, the diesel burning to generate electricity, but it is an electric motor which has more torque than other orders. That is why they are diesel electric trains. We can provide that electricity by other sources other than diesel. There is a solution to that problem and it is a better solution than to continue burning fossil fuel. Host norman, amherst, massachusetts on the green party line. Caller thanks for taking my call. I have been in the green party for a long time. Points. Ave three short you can answer whichever you choose. Panels the Revenue Streams provide backdoor funding to nukes. Makes of mccarthyism, it our party sound crazy and stupid. It is antisemitic dog whistles. The americaning First Committee for norman tom is. That is putting our party in the wrong place. Guest i do not know who you are referring to with the antisemitic and mccarthy just comments andt solar panels being a backdoor for fracking. Solar panels use the suns energy, and fracking is going after oil in the ground. Host we are just about out of time, mr. Hawkins. We would like to thank howie hawkins, the green Party President ial candidate for being with us here on the show today. Thank you, mr. Hawkins. Guest thank you. Democraticblican and parties and campaigns of President Trump and joe biden are adjusting for next months. Olitical convention the democrats will convene for a scaledback convention in milwaukee starting august 17. The republicans begin their dimension the following week, august 20 fourth in charlotte, North Carolina before moving onto jacksonville, florida. The democratic and Republican National conventions live on cspan beginning monday, august 17 and watch anytime on cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Late yesterday afternoon, President Trump spoke with reporters when departing the white house to visit walter reed medical center. Pres. Trump hello, everybody. We are going to walter reed hospital. Warriors, some are wounded and badly wounded and they are great people