Stewart Alexander for President 2012 | |
---|---|
Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 2012 |
Candidate | Stewart Alexander |
Affiliation | Socialist Party USA |
Headquarters | 339 Lafayette St. #303 New York, NY 10012 |
Receipts | US$1,162 (2011-12-31) |
Slogan | Economic Democracy, Economic Prosperity. |
Website | |
http://www.stewartalexanderforpresident2012.org/ [usurped] |
The 2012 presidential campaign of Stewart Alexander war formed soon after the 2008 presidential election. Alexander, who had previously campaigned for the Socialist Party USA nomination in 2008 and served as their Vice Presidential nominee, selected Alejandro Mendoza as his running mate. He was often discussed as a potential candidate for the 2012 Socialist Party USA presidential nomination.
On July 16, 2010, Alexander officially declared his candidacy for the President of the United States with the Socialist Party and on August 18, 2010, for the Green Party. [1] However, on July 2, 2011, he withdrew his candidacy for the Green Party nomination. [2] Simultaneously, on January 6, 2011, Alexander entered the race for the presidential nomination of the California-based Peace and Freedom Party. [3]
His candidacy gained momentum when he secured the presidential nomination from the Socialist Party USA on October 15, 2011, [4] at the Party's national convention in Los Angeles, California.
In August, Alexander sought the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party, a ballot qualified socialist party in California. However, the nomination went to a ticket featuring comedian Roseanne Barr and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. Subsequently, Alexander resigned from the Steering Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party, citing a lack of support for socialist candidates by the PFP. [4]
During his political campaign, Alexander's positions challenged the establishment, thinking of the mainstream political parties and pundits in the mainstream media. This included calling the Affordable Care Act a "corporate giveaway" that he called the "corporate restructuring of the healthcare system in America" for the benefit of private healthcare companies, supporting private Chelsea Manning saying that "whistleblowers should be protected not prosecuted," criticizing the impeachment of Paraguay's president (calling it a coup), that President Barack Obama represents the one percent not the 99 percent and that Bush-era policies of a surveillance state and permanent war have expanded under Obama's watch. [5] [6] [7] Alexander has additionally demanded term limits for those in the Supreme Court and called for Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached for not noting that he received $700,000 on a government disclosure form and for attending "secret meetings with conservative business leaders at an event sponsored and hosted by the Koch brothers" before the Citizens United vs. FEC decision. [8] However, Alexander also took a jab at other third parties as well, like the Illinois Green Party noting that "the big surprise of this election season is that another Third Party, the Illinois Green Party, not the Democrats and Republicans are the ones resorting to dirty tricks...Rob Sherman the Chair of the Cook County Green Party...filed the challenge to get us thrown off the ballot...the innocent victim in all of this is Jill Stein...However, blocking the Socialist Party and other parties in Illinois will be a black eye for her campaign. Green Party claims to support open electoral laws will be permanently suspect unless Sherman removes his challenge." [9]
There were a number of interviews and stories about the presidential campaign. The first instance was an interview with the blog called The Modern Left. [10] Some excerpts from the interview are as follows:
Other places on the internet also wrote about the campaign, including an article in The Root. [11] This article quoted Alexander at numerous times, where he notes despite the lack of coverage in the corporate media people are coming around to the idea of socialism and the article concludes with him offering the Socialist Party USA as an alternative. Another article written by Scott Tucker for Truthdig also has a favorable view. [12] Tucker writes that "Stewart Alexander believes fair elections are worth a fair fight and he's asking for your vote...He is a democratic socialist, an African-American community activist and the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in 2012...Alexander is not simply a "left-wing Keynesian" reformer ... Alexander has also been a strong critic of Obama's "continuation of the Bush era security state policies." He has the same moral fire and political clarity as Eugene Debs ... Alexander began looking and thinking beyond an electoral system dominated by two big corporate parties. He was briefly inspired by the campaign of Ross Perot ... The program of the Socialist Party of the United States is both class conscious and civil libertarian, and Alexander will give American voters a chance to truly make our votes count for democracy and socialism." He then proceeded in asking five questions of Alexander:
Beyond this, there wasn't many other sympathetic articles or such other than an article in Irregular Times which noted about Alexander: "Right wingers, this is what genuine Socialists, Marxists, Communists look like," another on the Dissenting Democrat blog which noted the campaign called for "radical democratization" of society, one on Uncovered Politics where the writer covers the campaign itself and another on examiner.com [13] [14] [15] There were some videos on YouTube as well including a clip from the Stossel Show about if America could accept a socialist president, another interview with jeff4justice and numerous other video clips. [16] [17] [18] Since there weren't many other stories about the campaign, the Presidential questionnaire put out by the Socialist Party USA gives some idea of his other positions as does the issues page on his website. [19] [20] In a pre-election message, Stewart Alexander wrote that their campaign "sought to unveil the lies of the capitalists that has given working people a false sense of hope and security that has only enslaved the minds of working people...The Alexander/Mendoza campaign believe that this campaign is marking a new beginning and is changing the conscience of the nation that capitalism will never work for working people because it is built on greed and competition; to the contrary, the Alexander/Mendoza campaign has shared the message of socialism to fosters the concept of a society that is based on compassion, empathy, respect, cooperation and the development of new social structures." [21]
A number of differing people endorsed Stewart Alexander. [22] These included David McReynolds, who was the first homosexual candidate for president, the National Secretary of the Socialist Party USA Greg Pason, a teacher named Steve Soltysik, Maggie Phair of the Maggie Phair Institute, the County Chairperson of Kern County's Peace and Freedom Party named Mohammad Arif, a U.S. Senate candidate for 2012 named Kabiruddin Karim Ali and the New Progressive Alliance which stands for peace, full employment at a Living Wage, environmental sustainability, Medicare for All, Fair Trade, human rights, civil liberties, reforming elections, holding corporations accountable, and the creation of a public infrastructure bank. [23] [24]
In the 2012 election, Stewart Alexander garnered 4,430 votes. [25] Instead of conceding to the newly elected President Barack Obama, Alexander wrote a "concession" letter in which he did not wish Obama success in his future endeavors but hoped that he could "forgive my inability to do so." As a result, Alexander criticized the President for continuing George W. Bush's policies, helping coordinate the crackdown on the Occupy Movement, possible future intimidation of "various leftist groups," the continuation of drone attacks which have caused numerous innocents to be killed, including an American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki," the continuation of assaults and indefinite detentions of activists, more wars that are "fossil fuels," pushing the scaling back of "our meager social safety...leaving those most in need with even less." In the end of the letter, he offers an alternative saying he will be "hoping for success for the people of the United States and for working people across the world rather than financial success of Wall Street...I will be continuing the fight to awaken the minds of the American people to the truth and striving for non-violent, democratic revolution." [26]
More than a month later, the Socialist Party USA website interviewed Alexander in a post-election interview. In the interview they asked him twelve questions covering every aspect of his campaign. Here are some excerpts from that interview: [27]
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Stewart Alexander for President 2012 | |
---|---|
Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 2012 |
Candidate | Stewart Alexander |
Affiliation | Socialist Party USA |
Headquarters | 339 Lafayette St. #303 New York, NY 10012 |
Receipts | US$1,162 (2011-12-31) |
Slogan | Economic Democracy, Economic Prosperity. |
Website | |
http://www.stewartalexanderforpresident2012.org/ [usurped] |
The 2012 presidential campaign of Stewart Alexander war formed soon after the 2008 presidential election. Alexander, who had previously campaigned for the Socialist Party USA nomination in 2008 and served as their Vice Presidential nominee, selected Alejandro Mendoza as his running mate. He was often discussed as a potential candidate for the 2012 Socialist Party USA presidential nomination.
On July 16, 2010, Alexander officially declared his candidacy for the President of the United States with the Socialist Party and on August 18, 2010, for the Green Party. [1] However, on July 2, 2011, he withdrew his candidacy for the Green Party nomination. [2] Simultaneously, on January 6, 2011, Alexander entered the race for the presidential nomination of the California-based Peace and Freedom Party. [3]
His candidacy gained momentum when he secured the presidential nomination from the Socialist Party USA on October 15, 2011, [4] at the Party's national convention in Los Angeles, California.
In August, Alexander sought the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party, a ballot qualified socialist party in California. However, the nomination went to a ticket featuring comedian Roseanne Barr and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. Subsequently, Alexander resigned from the Steering Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party, citing a lack of support for socialist candidates by the PFP. [4]
During his political campaign, Alexander's positions challenged the establishment, thinking of the mainstream political parties and pundits in the mainstream media. This included calling the Affordable Care Act a "corporate giveaway" that he called the "corporate restructuring of the healthcare system in America" for the benefit of private healthcare companies, supporting private Chelsea Manning saying that "whistleblowers should be protected not prosecuted," criticizing the impeachment of Paraguay's president (calling it a coup), that President Barack Obama represents the one percent not the 99 percent and that Bush-era policies of a surveillance state and permanent war have expanded under Obama's watch. [5] [6] [7] Alexander has additionally demanded term limits for those in the Supreme Court and called for Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached for not noting that he received $700,000 on a government disclosure form and for attending "secret meetings with conservative business leaders at an event sponsored and hosted by the Koch brothers" before the Citizens United vs. FEC decision. [8] However, Alexander also took a jab at other third parties as well, like the Illinois Green Party noting that "the big surprise of this election season is that another Third Party, the Illinois Green Party, not the Democrats and Republicans are the ones resorting to dirty tricks...Rob Sherman the Chair of the Cook County Green Party...filed the challenge to get us thrown off the ballot...the innocent victim in all of this is Jill Stein...However, blocking the Socialist Party and other parties in Illinois will be a black eye for her campaign. Green Party claims to support open electoral laws will be permanently suspect unless Sherman removes his challenge." [9]
There were a number of interviews and stories about the presidential campaign. The first instance was an interview with the blog called The Modern Left. [10] Some excerpts from the interview are as follows:
Other places on the internet also wrote about the campaign, including an article in The Root. [11] This article quoted Alexander at numerous times, where he notes despite the lack of coverage in the corporate media people are coming around to the idea of socialism and the article concludes with him offering the Socialist Party USA as an alternative. Another article written by Scott Tucker for Truthdig also has a favorable view. [12] Tucker writes that "Stewart Alexander believes fair elections are worth a fair fight and he's asking for your vote...He is a democratic socialist, an African-American community activist and the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in 2012...Alexander is not simply a "left-wing Keynesian" reformer ... Alexander has also been a strong critic of Obama's "continuation of the Bush era security state policies." He has the same moral fire and political clarity as Eugene Debs ... Alexander began looking and thinking beyond an electoral system dominated by two big corporate parties. He was briefly inspired by the campaign of Ross Perot ... The program of the Socialist Party of the United States is both class conscious and civil libertarian, and Alexander will give American voters a chance to truly make our votes count for democracy and socialism." He then proceeded in asking five questions of Alexander:
Beyond this, there wasn't many other sympathetic articles or such other than an article in Irregular Times which noted about Alexander: "Right wingers, this is what genuine Socialists, Marxists, Communists look like," another on the Dissenting Democrat blog which noted the campaign called for "radical democratization" of society, one on Uncovered Politics where the writer covers the campaign itself and another on examiner.com [13] [14] [15] There were some videos on YouTube as well including a clip from the Stossel Show about if America could accept a socialist president, another interview with jeff4justice and numerous other video clips. [16] [17] [18] Since there weren't many other stories about the campaign, the Presidential questionnaire put out by the Socialist Party USA gives some idea of his other positions as does the issues page on his website. [19] [20] In a pre-election message, Stewart Alexander wrote that their campaign "sought to unveil the lies of the capitalists that has given working people a false sense of hope and security that has only enslaved the minds of working people...The Alexander/Mendoza campaign believe that this campaign is marking a new beginning and is changing the conscience of the nation that capitalism will never work for working people because it is built on greed and competition; to the contrary, the Alexander/Mendoza campaign has shared the message of socialism to fosters the concept of a society that is based on compassion, empathy, respect, cooperation and the development of new social structures." [21]
A number of differing people endorsed Stewart Alexander. [22] These included David McReynolds, who was the first homosexual candidate for president, the National Secretary of the Socialist Party USA Greg Pason, a teacher named Steve Soltysik, Maggie Phair of the Maggie Phair Institute, the County Chairperson of Kern County's Peace and Freedom Party named Mohammad Arif, a U.S. Senate candidate for 2012 named Kabiruddin Karim Ali and the New Progressive Alliance which stands for peace, full employment at a Living Wage, environmental sustainability, Medicare for All, Fair Trade, human rights, civil liberties, reforming elections, holding corporations accountable, and the creation of a public infrastructure bank. [23] [24]
In the 2012 election, Stewart Alexander garnered 4,430 votes. [25] Instead of conceding to the newly elected President Barack Obama, Alexander wrote a "concession" letter in which he did not wish Obama success in his future endeavors but hoped that he could "forgive my inability to do so." As a result, Alexander criticized the President for continuing George W. Bush's policies, helping coordinate the crackdown on the Occupy Movement, possible future intimidation of "various leftist groups," the continuation of drone attacks which have caused numerous innocents to be killed, including an American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki," the continuation of assaults and indefinite detentions of activists, more wars that are "fossil fuels," pushing the scaling back of "our meager social safety...leaving those most in need with even less." In the end of the letter, he offers an alternative saying he will be "hoping for success for the people of the United States and for working people across the world rather than financial success of Wall Street...I will be continuing the fight to awaken the minds of the American people to the truth and striving for non-violent, democratic revolution." [26]
More than a month later, the Socialist Party USA website interviewed Alexander in a post-election interview. In the interview they asked him twelve questions covering every aspect of his campaign. Here are some excerpts from that interview: [27]
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link)
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link)