Jill Stein

We saw Jesse Jackson the victim of a smear campaign. People remember the Dean scream that was used against Howard Dean as a peace candidate who was doing well. So, in many ways, the Democratic Party creates campaigns that fake Left while it moves Right and becomes more corporatist, more militarist, more imperialist.

Our top plank really is a Green New Deal to transform our economy to a green economy, 100 percent wind, water and sun by the year 2030 - we can do it; this is an emergency, and we must do it - but to use that as an opportunity to put America back to work, to renew our infrastructure, and to basically assure that everyone has a job.

Finding a 'sacrificial lamb' on whom to tag blame for complicated problems is an important instrument in the toolkit of politicians, because it deflects blame for the nation's economic woes away from their own regulatory lapses, economic mismanagement and coddling to labor unions.