Walker, then it was a mad scramble to get on ballot lines. We started with the green party having the 21 state battle lines and left 30 more petitions to do and we were appealing the state governments for relief during the covid pandemic because it was against Public Health guidelines to be out there physically asking for petitions and when we did we looked like hazmat workers with gloves and visors and masks and disinfectant. It was a mad scramble to get on the ballot and in the end we got on 30 ballots representing 73 of the voters, 381 electoral votes, you need 270 to win. And then you count the writein states were on and were 96 of the voters and 514 potential electorate votes out of a possible 538. That was july and august. Even more difficult barrier is getting in the National Media dialogue about the campaign. We get in on a lot of local media when we show up but in terms of the network news, the big newspapers, the cable news, weve been blanked out. And so thats a big frustration. We are running on things we think people want, medicare for all, a Green New Deal, getting out of these endless wars. Its frustrating for us to know we maybe have the most Popular Platform and were not getting covered. Host so youre part of the original u. S. Green party. Tell us about the history of your party and how it was founded and how its changed since it was founded . Guest we started in august of 1984 with the First National meeting and the inspiration was the german green party. They had got into their bundesgog, ed the we have grassroots democracy and nonviolence and wanted to build positives around that. For the last 36 years now, thats what weve been doing. We elected about we won about 1,200 races and about 100 green in local office now. And really our goal is to build that up, elect thousands as we go in the 2020s and build from local office to state office to congress. Then when we run somebody for president they wont be able to ignore us. Thats what were doing and one of the purposes of the president ial campaign is win ballot lines. The percent of the vote we get or in some states an absolute number determines whether we have a ballot line the next election cycle which makes it a lot easier for our down ballot candidates to run, 1 , 2 , 3 or 5 in most states and thats one reason were running for president in order to run more candidates at the state and local level going forward. Host tell us about the green party, how many members does the green party have in the. Nited states and and you referenced the Green New Deal and tell us what the main Party Platform is for your green party and run for president. Guest if you count the number of people that enrolled in the green party in the various states is about 250,000 and if you project it in the states where you cant enroll in the green party because we dont have a ballot line, theres maybe 500,000 people in the country identified with the green party and thats a pretty good base. Our leading issues i said three life or death issues. One is the Climate Crisis where the Green New Deal comes in. I was the first candidate to campaign on that in 2010 running for governor of new york and were talking about getting to 100 clean energy and zero green gas emissions by 2030 which is what we have to do to avoid catastrophic Climate Change and is a plan to invest 27. 5 trillion over 10 million to ing 38 care for people of the planet and make the economic transition. And the second issue is the economic crisis. Weve had a economic bill of rights to end poverty and economic insecurity and those rights should include the right to a job with the government as employer of last resort, a guaranteed income above poverty, medicare for all, Affordable Housing in the public sector, lifelong Public Education and raising Social Security benefits so seniors can retire instead of working until they drop dead because they dont have other sources of income and they can all live above the poverty line. The third issue and this is a big frustration because nobody in the major parties are talking about it. Were in a nuclear arms race. We want peace initiatives to reduce tensions and reopen the door to Nuclear Disarmament. The Doomsday Clock is the closest its ever been to midnight. Three years ago 122 nations agreed to the text of a treaty of a prohibition on the Nuclear Weapons. The rest of the world is scared about this. But post of our major parties are committed to this Nuclear Modernization program that is deploying new Nuclear Weapons in the strategic sector and more tactical nukes in the conventional forces. This should be a top Campaign Issue and not being discussed. Were talking about whether our peace initiatives, deep cuts in military spending, getting out of these endless wars and pledging no first use of Nuclear Weapons and then trying to open, reopen Nuclear Disarmament negotiations with the other Nuclear Powers with world Public Opinion on our side, those countries that want the prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Host lets let our viewers take part in the conversation as well and open up our regular lines, that means that republicans, you can call in at 20274880001. Democrats, 2027488000. Dependents, your line is 2027488002 and open a special line for green party members, we want to hear from you, your line is going to be 2027488003. Eep in mind you can text us at 2027488003 and were always reading on social media on twitter cspan wj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Howie, where are you seeing growth in the green party in the United States . Are there a certain demographic youre going for or certain areas where you see the green party moving forward more than it was in other areas . Guest yeah. The people were looking to, sometimes people say we spoil the election for the democrats. The truth is we bring new people to the polls. According to exit polls, we wouldnt have come out if jill wasnt on the ballot. Were looking at the 100 Million People that didnt vote in 2016 and disproportionately working class, people of color and young. Thats who were aiming at articularly. Were getting a strong response from the young climate activists who know their future is on the line and have a serious program, the two other parties do not to deal with the Climate Crisis and were getting a lot of young people of color because weve been very active in the black lives Matter Movement and we have a program that goes beyond what the democrats have been willing to offer which is use of force reforms. We want Community Control for the police and end the war on drugs which is the pipeline to mass incarceration. We think africanamericans need reparations and indigenous americans need their treaty a ts looked at and we need Rights Program for those communities that have been racially depressed communities and invest in the homes and housing and schools and health care and jobs to improve the communities. When they talk about defunding the police, theyre talking about getting those services to the communities but theres not enough in the Police Departments and needs to be a federal program. Ere getting a good response from africanamericans and latino people in particular and see that in the crass holves and the polls. Theres a small sample in the crass halves but inconsistent in the polls were included in and getting a good response and can see that to the people coming to the campaign. I would say the groups that responded most are young climate activists and young people of color. Host lets let our viewers take part in the conversation and start with dave who is calling from ohio on the green party line. Dave, good morning. Dave well, top othe morning to you, sir. I havent voted for a democrat or republican since 1996. When i voted for nader. I challenge your audience to read the green Party Platform. Theres a lot in there for the working man to agree upon. And there has been 11 billion that has been put into this election between the democrats and the republicans. Hat is for bloomberg news. And if youre voting for a democrat or republican, youre voting for the rich because those are the people giving the money to the Democratic Party and Republican Party and if you dont think that they want something in return ive got a bridge to sell you. Go, howie, go. Host your response there, howie . Guest well, the only thing id add is we want Public Campaign financing, elections are public functions. We should have a level playing field. And its not just that the rich folks have spent 11 billion on biden and trump. A lot of money is dark money. We dont know where it came from. They put it in a 501 c4, a socalled Welfare Association that doesnt have to report its donors and send some money on politicks to that organization, they cant spend it all and pass it on to superpacs who say it got it from c4 when it came from dark money and it can come in from anywhere, Foreign Countries or organized crime, we dont know where the money is coming from and thats a huge scandal. Public Campaign Finance is another thing we need to have Fair Elections in this country. Host heres a question from one of our social media followers who want to know, do you support the Green New Deal and can you discuss any benefits from the Green New Deal . Guest i was the first candidate to campaign for a Green New Deal in 2010 and has been a signature issue to the green party for the last decade. Unfortunately the democrat superslogan diluted the slogan in the nonbinding contract for a Green New Deal pelosi didnt let them vote in the house and voted present and not for in the senate and now isnt even mentioned in the democratic platform. The Green New Deal were talking about is public enterprising and planning in the energy and Manufacturing Sector in order to transform all our Productive Systems to 100 clean energy and zero to negative Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2030 and we have a detailed budget. Its the only detailed Green New Deal plan out there. You wont find another one. And you can check our home work. Ut we accosted it 10 years 27. 3 trillion and creates 33 million jobs and were going to employ people caring for people in the planet. Thats the Green New Deal. Check our home work. Ts on our website hawyhawkins. Us. Theres been talk of a Green New Deal from the democrats and they dont have a plan, we do. Host lets go to mike calling from california on the republican line. Mike, good morning. Caller good morning. You scare the daylights out of me, my friend. Couple points, the 31,000 signers on record deny Climate Change exists but cant get a voice because the elite liberal media sets them out. And then the so including the matter of fact, the guy who founded the Weather Channel is a scientist and repude eights it. Far as reparations, im a white male, and my ancestry was all yankees and they helped free the slaves, in fact some of them died face down in the mud. So how is it possible that i should be on the hook for giving black people money from my family when my people died face down in the mud . Guest well, on the Climate Change question, look, people like this gentleman donald trump calls Climate Change a hoax, they dont have the science. The problem for us is the democrats act as if its a hoax because you look at the biden plan, is pro fossil fuels and want to go back to Nuclear Power which costs two to three times more than most forms of solar and wind pow tore produce electricity. We have a serious problem there. As far as reparations go, i had ancestors die on the union side of the civil war as well. But the question is these communities, the black community has been segregated, discriminated against and exploited not just during slavery but jim crow and right down to the last decade where in the after math of the great recession, black america lost half its wealth due to predator lending and foreclosures. And people like Steve Mnuchin who is the treasury secretary was in the middle that and not prosecuted and not by the Obama Administration and not by Kamala Harris as attorney general and in fact her staff brought a thousand counts of mortgage fraud for consideration for prosecution and she said no, then mnuchin turned around and gave her a 2,000 contribution for a run for u. S. Senate. There needs to be reparations for the corporate crime that stole black americas wealth just in the last decade. You dont have to go back to slavery crimes and is the continuation of hundreds of years of exploitation. So how about reparations for the last 10 years . And how about we prosecute these corporate criminals that are not just robbing black people blind, corporate crime, why dont we fight corporate crime. Trump wants to talk about law and order, how about these corporate criminals, his administration is full of them. Hes had more people in his administration indicted than hes got a record for that. So i think thats where we need to look at to make things right. And you want to talk about law and order, lets go after the corporate criminals. Host heres another comment from another one of our social media followers who says, where is the green party down ticket . I might vote for a Green Party Candidate in a race where they can win and prove themselves. I cant Vote Third Party in the national election. Facism is here and any vote that isnt for biden is a vote for trump and his blatant crimes against humanity. Guest first of all, if the democrats want to take care of trump they could have impeached him on the whole mile long rap sheet that is his criminal record. I was just talking about the corporate crime and the real estate industry, money laundering, selfenrichment and violation of the emol meant emolument clause of the constitution and if the democrats were to fight the far right would have developed an impeachment indictment includes all the ways trump is breaking the current law and encouraging Law Enforcement not to follow the law like on the border, like when he told those long island cops to rough people up when they put them in the squad cars, and then all the ways trump has been hurting workers and consumers in the environment. And he could have built political momentum to get trump out of there. Look, trump wants to be a autocrat but hes not a facist. Theres no facist movement and its not mussolinis germany with thousands in arms ready to smash the democracy and the workers movement. Its a different situation. You have a guy out of control and off the charts with his racist and scapegoating invectives but theres not a facist movement out there. We dont have indictments of antiwar activists like under nixon. People need to put this in perspective. Im not saying hes good. Hes got to go. But to say the only way to fight trump is with the democrats, they have accommodated the far right, clinton called it angulation, biden calls it working across the isle. Im afraid we have a neoliberal hawk in the democratic nominee in joe biden. We cant afford that. Working people, our life expectancies have been declining in recent years and why we need an economic bill of rights. Were getting nothing like that from biden. Im tired of this oh, youve got to vote for biden. As far as down ballot, yeah, weve got over 200 candidates around the country and one of the purposes of our campaign as i said before is to get enough votes in the president ial race so we can have a ballot line for the next election cycle so we can run more candidates down ballot. Host lets go back to our poll lines and talk to tom who is calling from new york on the independent line. Tom, good morning. Caller good morning, mr. Hawkins, im sure you remember me, i was in 1994 new york state the green partys First Federal candidate to qualify for the ballot which f. D. C. Records will prove. And that was for u. S. Congress again in 1996. And i supported all their issues and so, yeah, we need an environmental party. But i came to realize while i shared their issues and basically im trying to give you a reason why you should not vote for green this year and that to have a party to beat the republicans and democrats, you need a big party and you need a lot of people. If you have an extreme agenda one side or the other, were not going to attract enough people to be successful and save the earth. Which is the goal. You look what happened in 2000 with mr. Nader and 535 votes and fair to criticize gores