Greens: It’s safe to cast votes for Stein

BOULDER, Colo. — At Jill Stein’s presidential rallies, the 2016 election is over. Donald Trump has already lost, and his Republican Party is “falling apart.” A “Demo-Republican” party, led by Hillary Clinton, is rolling toward victory.

It’s safe, in other words, to vote for the Green Party and to ignore those “corporate media” voices yammering about “spoilers” and “wasted votes” and Ralph Nader.

“Most Donald Trump supporters, in fact, don’t support Donald Trump,” Stein said at a rally in Fort Collins on Saturday night, the second stop on a four-city tour of Colorado. “They just really, really don’t like Hillary Clinton. So, let’s give them another place to put their vote.”

Stein, who is making her second Green Party presidential bid, has yet to rise out of single digits in the polls. But Trump’s recent swoon has given her an opening — a way to argue, temporarily, that a progressive voter can bolt the Democratic Party without electing Trump.

It was one reason she came to Colorado, a state that Democrats have recently nudged into the “safe” column. The pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA slashed an ad buy this month, and a divided Republican Party nominated a far-right, poorly funded candidate.

In some states, the crisis in the GOP is giving Democrats hope of historic routs. Stein sees something else emerging — a chance for progressive voters, including the former supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to empower the Greens. In a few new national polls, Clinton has lost a few points, not to Trump, but to Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson. That could damage the Democrats in future elections, as a Stein performance of just 5 percent could get the Greens automatic ballot access.

At each stop, she was greeted by a mix of die-hard Greens, ex-Sanders delegates who had participated in a DemExit, and progressives who were still unsure about switching to Green.