Here’s a fun fact: a current United States presidential candidate has a warrant out for her arrest. To the disappointment of about fifty percent of Americans, I’m talking about Jill Stein, the Green Party’s current candidate for President of the United States.
On September 7 of this year, a judge in North Dakota issued a warrant for the arrest of Jill Stein as well as the Green Party’s VP candidate, Ajamu Baraka, on grounds of criminal mischief. More specifically, the pair (allegedly) committed vandalism of the currently-under-construction Dakota Access Pipeline (CBS News). Putting aside entirely her political stances on such important issues as Wi-Fi (which she considers bad for children) and organic food (good) (Jill2016.com), hopefully Americans across the political spectrum can agree that this is absolutely hilarious. First, she (again, allegedly) wrote on a bulldozer “I approve of this message” (CBS News). The level of unfettered boldness it takes to spruce up the paint job on several tons of machinery is remarkably high. If I were running for President, my thoughts would generally lean more towards voter outreach and less towards let’s-go-redecorate-some-bulldozers. It’s refreshing to see a different perspective in politics.
Also, this entire episode happened in North Dakota. I’m not even sure whether there are still people in North Dakota (where, I assume, the electoral votes are allotted by a small gang of elk), which makes it all the more amusing that Stein found herself there. One has to wonder how bad Stein’s poll numbers to make her campaign decide that, yes, a trip to North Dakota might be the very thing we need to revitalize this campaign. When The Circle Voice contacted Stein’s Maine campaign office, Jacqui Deveneau (the director of Stein’s campaign in the state) clarified that Dr. Stein’s protest was a personal action and that she “took time out of her campaign” to support pipeline opponents in such a manner.
There are those who would call this behavior “immature” and “unbecoming of a Presidential candidate.” I say that they’re wrong—I’m looking forward to having such an inadvertently comical president in the White House. We’ve had too many of the same empty suits in the Oval Office for long enough. I say screw the squares—send in Stein.