I'm writing this the Friday before the 2022 election, and things look grim for the Nation and for Democracy. Lying, fascist Republicans look like they will win in race after race. Some of them won their primaries with the help of the Democrat national party who donated to them in the mistaken belief that their extremists views wouldn't prevail in the general election.

This is just one of the tremendous mistakes the Democrats have made that have led us up to this point. One of the biggest mistakes was when they decided to make disenfranchising Green Parties all over the country a priority. Both Democrats and Republicans cooperated to knock us off the ballot in Ohio and other states by raising requirements for achieving official Party status. This was a disaster for Democrats, and I'll tell you why.

Greens, since we refuse to take corporate money, have not sold out to giant corporations. So, when Republicans make some outrageous claim or outright lie, we can call them on it in a way the Democrats can't. One of the best examples is the JR Majewski/Marcy Kaptur race. Majewski, the Republican, is running on his expertise in the nuclear industry. He brags about overseeing the reactor head replacement at Davis-Besse. But that replacement was a tremendous failure! The original head had a giant, football sized hole eaten almost all the way through from dripping boric acid. The acid had eaten through the cold steel outer shell, ten inches of concrete, and all that was left was 3/8 of an inch of stainless steel lining the inner chamber. That tiny layer was beginning to buckle under the tremendous pressure inside the nuclear reactor. If it had, there would have been a terrible meltdown and NW Ohio would be an abandoned ghost town, like Fukushima, like Chernobyl, and like so many other radioactive wastelands around the globe.

Majewski oversaw the replacement of the destroyed reactor head with an identical, unused head from a plant in Michigan which never started up. It was made from the same, exact inadequate materials. It started to dissolve in exactly the same way the original head did!! In other words, he was part of, perhaps one of the stupidest episodes in the history of the US nuclear industry. They literally did exactly the same thing, expecting a different result. Eventually, they replaced the reactor head a second time with a head manufactured in France! Instead of a plus for Vance, this should have been a tremendous opportunity for Kaptur to show him up as the incompetent buffoon that he is.

But, Kaptur can't. The reason? The Democrats have embraced nuclear power. Biden has made it one of his priorities. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm practically spews plutonium every time she opens her mouth. This is because billionaires like Bill Gates, who own the Democrat Party have decreed it. So, a poor Democrat like Kaptur can't say anything bad about nukes.

If there were a Green in this race, they would not hesitate to call out the Republicans on ALL their lies, cheating, and hypocrisy. When I ran for Senate in 2016, I was able to directly confront Portman with the fact he was betraying the oath he took as a Senator to serve the country. He was refusing to consider Obama's supreme court nominee because he was putting Party before Country. Greens say out loud what Dems wish they could.

Also, Greens turn out the voters who normally stay home because they've lost faith with both the ordinary Parties, and with politics in general. When I ran for Bowling Green City Council, there were two open at-large seats and four candidates: one Green, two Republicans, and one Democrat. Everyone got two votes to divide between the four candidates. Now, the Democrats told their members not to use their second vote. They were told to vote for the Democrat but throw away their second vote rather than voting for me. My voters were told no such thing, and they came from the poorer areas of the City that normally had much lower turn out. They cast their second vote for the Democrat, and she beat one of the Republicans by a few dozen votes. Had I not run, we would have had two at-large Republicans.

The answer to Fascism is Democracy. Rigging the system so that only two Parties, which only a minority of Americans belong to, can participate in elections goes against the Green Party value of Grassroots Democracy. It has created the situation we now find ourselves in.

Whoever wins on Tuesday, we will not end up with a government that will effectively tackle the vital issues of the day, like climate change, women's rights, universal health care, and income inequality. We know the Democrats won't because they were unable to when they had control of both houses of congress and the white house. They always have excuses. There's always a Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema, but the real problem is a Party that's compromised so much they have no core values left. That's why the climate bill the Democrats passed also increases oil and gas drilling and gives billions of dollars to the failed nuclear industry. We know Republicans won't because they have told us they intend to destroy the environment, oppress women, and eliminate government support for things like medicare and social security. Unfortunately, when it comes to issues like that, Republicans always keep their promises.

The Greens still have values. We have our Ten Key Values, and if we were allowed on to the political arena, we would show people how those values are superior to the racial hatred, bitter division, and denial of scientific reality the Republicans are spouting. This would actually help Democrats by raising the level of debate, and helping the electorate think about the future instead of just reacting to the present. In fact, it would help the entire country if we had a vibrant, multi-party Democracy instead of the vile two-party System we have now.

(Correction: The original version of this blog incorrectly stated that it was the JD Vance/Tim Ryan race where Vance was touting his experience in the nuclear industry. It has been corrected to discuss the JR Majewski/Marcy Kaptur race.)