The United States has never talked so much about climate change, but the American Green Party and its candidate Jill Stein have difficulty existing in the presidential campaign, relying on arguments other than ecology to be audible.
Representative of the “Green Party” for the third time, Jill Stein is only at around 3% in a recent poll commissioned by the public media NPR (radio) and PBS (television), after having gathered 0.4% and 1%. votes in 2012 and 2016 respectively.
“Our priority is to be on the electoral lists” to be eligible, which requires thousands of signatures, explains this 73-year-old doctor. “We are focusing on that, rather than on a national media strategy. »
Among the activists on the ground, Alex Casper addresses walkers in a Philadelphia park on a Saturday afternoon, highlighting the alternative that the Green Party represents to the two main candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who repel many voters.
“If they continue on their path, I suggest they support the refusal of wars,” said the activist.
Alex also often draws his two other trump cards, namely the fight against poor housing and mass incarceration.
“Environmental ideas don’t always resonate as much,” notes Alex, “because many assume that the Democratic Party is already on this front. »
Jill Stein seeks to mark her difference on the subject, affirming that Joe Biden only offers “false solutions”. “If you want to stop climate change, you have to eliminate fossil fuels,” she says. “However, they allowed their expansion. »
The United States is now the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas.
“Huge impact”
Initially, the Chicago native chose to support academic Cornel West, who left the party in October to campaign on his own.
Without a candidate, the “Green Party” risked losing automatic access to the presidential vote in certain states, won through a tough struggle. “I didn’t want to see the work of two decades of my life go up in smoke,” summarizes Jill Stein.
“We are the only anti-genocide, anti-war campaign, mobilized on the climate emergency and the defense of workers,” asserts the only female candidate still in the running.
The Green Party thus denounces what it considers to be the “genocide” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, taking the opposite view of the two Democratic and Republican candidates, but also of Robert Kennedy Jr, the independent currently best placed in the polls. (around 13%).
The Greens also advocate the disengagement of the United States from armed conflicts.
For Jill Stein, this would make it possible, with an increase in taxation on high incomes and assets, to free up public funds for education, the energy transition, housing and the establishment of health coverage. universal.
A specialist in American independent parties, Bernard Tamas, professor at Valdosta State University in Georgia, does not see Jill Stein going higher in the polls.
“Independent parties have very few resources,” he emphasizes, in the absence of any public funding, “and campaigning in the United States is extremely expensive,” in particular to afford a large advertising presence.
“The majority” of voters who consider, for a time, voting for an independent candidate “end up choosing a dominant party” once at the ballot box.
In favor of more plurality, Emma Cramer, who signed Alex Casper’s document to obtain the registration of Jill Stein on the Pennsylvania lists, does not, however, intend to support the Greens.
“I don’t think at this point,” she said, “voting for an independent party is going to change things, unfortunately. »
Jill Stein denounces “the campaign of intimidation” carried out by the major American parties, in particular the Democrats, to call for a useful vote, in view of a close election, to the detriment of independent candidates.
“Studies clearly show that the majority of those who vote green are, overall, people who would not go to the polls” in the absence of a “Green Party” candidate, insists the doctor from Massachusetts.
And when it comes to influence, “to say we’re not going anywhere is inaccurate,” says Jill Stein. “We have a huge impact on policy” led by the United States.
She recalls that the erasure of part of the student debt, the major climate legislative package (IRA) or the expansion of health coverage (“Obamacare”) adopted by Democratic governments have all taken up ideas launched by the Greens.
“This is going to be a very close election,” announces Bernard Tamas. “If Biden left 1% of the vote for Jill Stein, that could decide the outcome. […] So he must talk a minimum of the subjects raised by the Greens or Cornel West to bring these voters back to him. »