Originally published by the American Peace Information Center – https://apic.us.org/
In this election year, the American Peace Information Center (APIC) recognizes that peace will come neither from the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party leadership, since they receive huge lobbying money from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and other military contractors. The Green Party Candidate Dr. Jill Stein seems to be the only viable Presidential candidate that opposes the forever war machine.
During the 2006 mid-term elections, it seemed that the Democratic Party was more in line with lukewarm opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is interesting to note that, when the Republican Party was in power (George Bush Jr., Donald Rumsfield, Dick Cheney), the Democratic Party appeared to be more aligned with the goal of peace. This is exemplified by the military-industrial lobby giving the 2004 Republican candidate George W. Bush Jr. about $1,011,899 while John Kerry, the Democratic Candidate, was given less than half that– $496,018. It was obvious who the Defense Industry supported in that period.
In the 2008 election, the military-industrial complex gave to Democrat Barack Obama 52% more in contributions than the Republican candidate, John McCain.
In 2012, the defense industry slightly favored Republican Mitt Romney over Barack Obama. Since then, the miliary-industrial complex has overwhelmingly favored the Democratic nominee. This 2024 election cycle, Kamala Harris’s campaign received $2,328,242 from it while Republican Donald Trump received less than $1M.
This does not mean that the Republican Party is the party of peace. It is obvious that neither Party is committed to a foreign policy of non-intervention and peaceful relations. A constant cycle of choosing between both parties on the question of peace has shown that the party in power carries out wars and the party out of power masquerades as a peace party. Since 1945, both Republican and Democratic Parties have been involved in wars of aggression and intervention throughout the world as is exemplified in the Cold War years against the Soviet Union and People’s China. Currently, since 2014, both major political parties have been supplying billions in military aid to both Israeli genocidal aggression and the fascist regime in Ukraine.
Dr. Jill Stein’s political platform strongly opposes Washington’s war machine. She advocates nuclear disarmament, disbanding aggressive military alliances such as NATO, demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, immediately cessation of all military aid to the warring nations in the Middle East, and ending embargoes and sanctions that impose collective punishment on entire nations. For these reasons, the American Peace Information Center proudly endorses Dr. Jill Stein’s 2024 presidential campaign.
