icon bookmark-bicon bookmarkicon cameraicon checkicon chevron downicon chevron lefticon chevron righticon chevron upicon closeicon v-compressicon downloadicon editicon v-expandicon fbicon fileicon filtericon flag ruicon full chevron downicon full chevron lefticon full chevron righticon full chevron upicon gpicon insicon mailicon moveicon-musicicon mutedicon nomutedicon okicon v-pauseicon v-playicon searchicon shareicon sign inicon sign upicon stepbackicon stepforicon swipe downicon tagicon tagsicon tgicon trashicon twicon vkicon yticon wticon fm
30 Sep, 2016 03:10

‘If you’re in a swing state, you got to vote for Hillary’ – Ben and Jerry’s founder on election

‘If you’re in a swing state, you got to vote for Hillary’ – Ben and Jerry’s founder on election

Bernie Sanders supporter and dairy god Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, is between a rock and a hard place. While not a Hillary Clinton fan, Cohen sees danger in a Trump presidency and has some advice for voters who share his feelings.

They may be ice cream entrepreneurs, but Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield are far from soft when it comes to politics. Both men were detained at demonstrations to fight political corruption and are fervent supporters and friends of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

But now with less than six weeks until Election Day, Cohen hopes that Bernie supporters know when to pick their fights.

Cohen is confident that Sanders will give all of his support to the Clinton campaign’s final push against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but he expressed some concern over whether or not Sanders’ supports will follow suit.

I think there’s a problem in terms of his supporters. I mean, Hillary is no Bernie Sanders,” he explained to RT’s Ed Schultz. “His supporters came in because he represented a whole new kind of politics and that’s not really what Hillary represents.”

While Cohen strongly believes in a need to change the status quo of US politics, he sees four years under Trump as a bigger risk.

However you feel about Hillary, the issue of the Supreme Court and the issue of treating African Americans in our country decently. If you believe in those two things, you’ve got to vote for Hillary,” he said.

Although these issues are simple for Cohen, an estimated one-third of Sanders backers do not plan to vote for the Democratic nominee, Fivethirtyeight reported. Clinton and Trump are polling at almost equal numbers, while the Green Party’s Jill Stein is polling at 2 percent and Libertarian Gary Johnson has 7 percent of the general population vote.

Cohen believes that voting for a third party candidate is a worthwhile cause – but only in some cases.

If you’re in a safe state, I think it’s fine to vote for Jill Stein,” he said, adding, “I think if you’re in a swing state, I think you’ve got to vote for Hillary.

A Trump presidency to Cohen means the US would become “a horrible, race-baiting place.” He expressed disbelief at the cavalier approach Trump took to praising stop-and-frisk and “law and order.

The 2016 election is not Cohen’s sole political passion; he also is involved in efforts to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United. For the past four years, Cohen is the brains behind Stamp Stampede, a grassroots effort to spread awareness about the Citizens United ruling that determined money is free speech and can be used to fund political campaigns in a number of shady ways, such as through dark money funds.

Over at the Stampede, we say if money’s free speech we’re going to make our money scream,” Cohen explained. By stamping various slogans about money in politics, Cohen hopes that along with the 65,000 people who are participated in stamping money, they can get one step closer to fairer politics.

Podcasts
0:00
23:13
0:00
25:0