R.I. GREENS WON’T RUN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE - Citing the danger of Trump’s re-election, the Green Party of Rhode Island says it won’t put a Green candidate on the state's presidential ballot, breaking ranks with the national party.

THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT. This will be the first time since 1996 that Rhode Island’s presidential ballot won’t include a Green Party candidate. The critical danger of Trump's return to power makes this break with the past an absolute necessity.

STOP TRUMP. “Trump threatens everything Greens stand for,” declared a party statement. "We cannot in good conscience participate in a presidential campaign which has even the slightest chance of helping return Donald Trump to the White House."

TRUMP=CRUELTY. Trump is responsible for immigrant children in cages, countless victims of escalating racist, anti-Muslim, anti-semitic, and anti-Asian attacks, and tens of thousands who have needlessly died or lost their financial lives in the coronavirus pandemic.

TRUMP=DEATH. Millions now suffer in the ongoing turmoil of a world unmoored from international norms and human rights protection—and we can expect more of the same, and worse, should Trump win re-election. Death and sorrow follow Trump wherever he goes.

TRUMP=ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE. Trump promises to continue the lawless rollback of 50 years’ environmental protections, and a catastrophic disdain for climate science which condemns countless species, including perhaps even our own, to extinction. This must end!

TRUMP=CORRUPTION AND HATE. Other likely outcomes of a Trump victory include unprecedented, shameless misogyny and homophobia from the Oval Office; unrestrained corruption in Washington; and the further capture of federal courts by nakedly reactionary forces.

TRUMP=FASCISM. We expect Trump to continue encouraging neo-confederates, white supremacists, and outright Nazis, setting these dangerous fanatics loose on workers and the poor, women, and people of color. We say no, to all who promote American fascism—especially Trump!

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER. Our difficult decision was necessary, to support our allies in the frontline immigrant, people of color, Indigenous, environmental, feminist, and LGBTQI communities, who’ve reminded us that anger towards Trump would overwhelm a Green candidate’s message.

GREENS=LOCAL DEMOCRACY. To continue building the party, we will step up recruitment efforts for municipal, legislative, statewide, and congressional candidates, and will campaign aggressively for state adoption of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).

PRINCIPLED ACTIVISM. RI Greens have earned a reputation for principled local activism and engagement with the state's peace movement; pipeline and fossil fuel activists; homelessness, immigrants’ rights, racial and social justice communities...

...Latinx political groups; surveillance, privacy, and internet access advocates; and grassroots political workers in many other areas—the very people, especially immigrants, youth, trans people, and people of color, most directly impacted by Trump’s cruelty and ruthlessness.

ENDING THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY. These are the people for whom ending the Trump presidency is a most pressing and urgent priority. Their very survival is at stake, and we will do nothing to weaken their power, resistance, and resolve. Our party is not more important than their lives.

THE GREEN VISION. The world needs a strong, growing Green Party more than ever. Only the Green vision of a world at peace, where equality, social justice, and democracy govern our lives, and ecological restoration supplants militarization, holds any promise for the future.

STOP TRUMP! The Green Party must survive and prosper. But that won't be possible if Trump is returned to power. Trump is death. Trump is corruption. Trump is hate. Trump is fascism. Trump is ecological catastrophe. Trump must be stopped.

LA LUCHA CONTINUA. Make no mistake, replacing Trump with a neo-liberal Democrat will still demand continued resistance to the racism, sexism, and classism which are deeply embedded in U.S. politics. We must, and we will, be part of that struggle. But first—Trump must go!