5. What major platform planks do you have that you feel separate you from the other candidates?
*=GPUS recognized candidates
Howie Hawkins*
Ecosocialist Green New Deal—I was the first candidate in the US to campaign for a Green New Deal in 2010. For 2020, I have detailed a budget for how the US can reach zero-to-negative greenhouse gas emissions and 100% clean energy by 2030.
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Economic Bill of Rights—This part of the Ecosocialist Green New Deal is a program to end poverty and economic insecurity in the United States. It speaks to the economic despair of the working-class majority that is their top issue. As a program that links racial justice to economic justice for all, we can build a majoritarian interracial movement of working people that can win these reforms.
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Nuclear Disarmament Initiatives—I am the only candidate of any party making this a top campaign issue in 2020.
Susan Buchser-Lochocki
Investing in our people: Upcycle the Military! The US military has a huge budget but we need it to help our US citizens all over the world to meet each other, learn from each other, go through some Peace, Respect, and Team Training. So for the first 2 years, I would not change a thing in the budget, we need to see how much money we need for the new training programs. Basic mandatory training for US citizens between the age of 18-35, optional for people over 35. Short term introduction training, Then there will be different divisions you can choose from, for longer training on a yearly basis, such as; Peace (US, global, crisis and disaster response), National Defence (Normal Defensive Military US and Global, Basic training, *Shooting practice, *Weapon sales, and distribution), Space (Satellites, Travel, UFO, Asteroids), Earth (Environment, disaster response, land aminals and creatures, freshwater creatures in lakes, lakes, rivers, forests, and agriculture), Ocean (Environmental, disaster response, ocean life, coastal areas, reefs, and deep seas), Care (Medical, emergency response, nursing, senior care, child care, personal care), Interior Care (Repair, rebuild, build new mass transit system with clean energy and other new works) etc. you get the idea. Its time to bring us together, take care of ourselves, our country and our planet. Let’s become leaders of Peace, not of war. PEACE matters EDUCATION matters
*Young men and sometimes girls are for various reasons attracted to guns. Whether it is for a job or for sport, they need to be trained, by professionals, not by the for-profit gun stores and shooting ranges. We need to close all the for-profits up, weapons are not-for-profit anymore and in any way. Then we open to the public military shooting ranges, distribution centers, and stores on the military bases, weapons are a military product that is where they belong. Naturally, there will be background checks and licenses will be issued and practice shooting on a regular basis will be mandatory and mental evaluations will be done periodically or as needed. NO MORE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS matter
Dario Hunter*
There are platform planks that most Green candidates in this race can agree on – for example, the Green New Deal, universal single payer health care, housing guarantees, the guarantee of a living wage, amongst (many) other progressive ideas in our party's platform.
But our campaign takes the principles of our party to an even higher, more impactful level in practice. Yes, we support the Green New Deal, but we add to its strong benchmarks in transitioning to renewable energy a comprehensive platform we call the Green Path Forward (GPF). The GPF is a broader approach, including a sharper focus on the international scope of this crisis, improving our diplomatic relationships with the countries we have been trained to hate but with which we must build stronger bonds in order to ensure that we solve this global crisis together. For example, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with countries like Russia and China - i.e. those on or near the top of the carbon emission list – in order to resolve this crisis. The GPF also focuses on the wider array of environmental crises – for example, plastic pollution (as plastics contribute to carbon emissions from cradle to grave), nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, the effects of 'Big Ag' (the agricultural industry) and the need to reach 'peak meat,' dialing down our meat production to address its substantial effect on climate change.
Our campaign has a stronger focus on peace building. No other Green campaign is (yet) advocating for a Department of Peace, calling for not simply a cut in the military budget, but that we bring an end to the military industrial complex and invest in a governmental cabinet-level agency that will engage in peace-building across the globe.
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No other campaign has demonstrated such a strong focus on racial inequality and remedying the deprivation of rights and economic inequalities that relate to it.
Our platform plank, The People of Color of Bill of Rights, speaks to the gap that exists between the rights it is said we have 'on the books' as Americans, and the actual everyday experience of America's minorities. This includes a focus on police brutality and our broken justice system, calling for community control of policing and a more robust public defender system, educational and environmental racism, ending inequalities in access to our banking and finance system, ending the persistent 'redlining' that reinforces age-old segregation, ensuring recognition for indigenous sovereignty and halting the current broken, racist immigration system which has put children in cages.
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Our campaign also has the most people-focused plan for dealing with COVID-19, one that (unlike any other campaign) advocates for $2,000 per month, per person universal basic income and no rent, no mortgage, no evictions throughout the crisis. Simple forbearance on rent is not enough as it would saddle Americans already challenged by a protracted crisis with massive debts as they try to recover. This is in addition to our calls for Medicare for all, public control of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, guarantees of housing, increased access to healthy food for America's many 'food deserts' and ending sanctions as well as the continued devotion of resources to war and imperialism.
The two-party duopoly looks first to bailing out the corporations. In this time of great challenges, we as Greens recognize that it's the American people as a whole who should be first and foremost in the minds of any responsible government.