Jill Stein and basic income clarification

On the recent town hall on CNN Jill Stein clarified her position on basic income. (By the way, she did very well at this town hall in my opinion). She said that she sees it more as a visionary goal and that it's not something she plans on implementing. Some people are disappointed by this, but I figured as much. She never really put it at the forefront of her campaign like green jobs and student loan debt. Still, I'm pleased with this, and a lite form of decentralized socialism, are in the platform.

Look, I don't expect all my problems to be solved in 4 years, and change to be so swift that society looks radically different in just 4 years. I understand progress takes decades to accomplish, and I think just getting the idea out there and raising awareness for what our society can be rather than what it is, is good enough. Stein still takes enough steps where I think we will be in a much better place in just 4-8 years, and I would be happy for a step in that direction.

Heck, as someone who doesn't expect her to win, my reasons for voting for her are more visionary than anything. I have said it time and time again, the democratic party is stubborn and lives for the status quo, it needs to be pressured to move to the left, and I believe third parties are an important safety valve through which to put pressure on them. And we need to think big.

The reason I don't settle for the democrats' approach to "incremental change" is because it has a "cable company runaround" (mildly NSFW due to South Park) flavor to it. It's not that their style of incremental change is a necessity here, it's that the democratic party doesn't want to try and has no interest in moving to the left or seriously considering these kinds of proposals. It's too busy sucking up that sweet sweet wall street money and only pretending to care about us. This election, it has done nothing but condescend to us, tell us we can't get what we want, and bully us into settling for less because we have no other viable choice. It has its agenda, it's doing what it wants to do, and we better get on board or else. This isn't real incremental change. They're giving us the runaround.

That being said, yes, it is disappointing that Stein isn't going to explicitly focus on basic income, but considering how she's more of a visionary candidate than a practical one with a real chance of winning, vision is more important than substance. I've said this from the beginning. As such, as far as I'm concerned, the greens should think big and pressure the system to moving in a positive direction and making real positive change. I do want to see basic income implemented some day, but I don't realistically see it being a hot topic for a good 10-20 years or so, after whoever we are voting for now has left office. Still, we can begin to build groundwork for it now, and it starts with a progressive movement toward more popular goals like universal healthcare.