In my experience what I'm hearing from people now is that they're just desperate to hear about something else.

My running mate, Ajamu Baraka, was out camping out with the homeless in Baltimore . We were both recently at the Standing Rock Sioux encampment where in fact we are both now, a warrant is out for our arrest for participating in civil disobedience to support this very critical stand being taken on behalf of our water, on behalf of human rights, on behalf of our climate.

While the President [Barack Obama] did a good thing when he said he personally supported equal marriage, he then quickly backed away and said that he wasn't going to do anything about it - that it was a state matter, and that he wasn't going to interfere, as opposed to being than being a real advocate for equality across the board in marriage. He also, I think two weeks prior to that statement, refused to sign an executive order to establish equal rights in the workplace for the LGBT community.

That was like the moment of revelation for me that in fact we are not the lunatic fringe.

We know that from the studies, like the Gilens and Page study out of Northwestern and Princeton, if you didn't know it from real life. We're not moving forward, we're moving backwards, and the clock is ticking on this, whether you look at climate or the expanding wars.

Growing up after the Second World War in a Jewish family, I really understand that, and have members of my family who are very committed to this concept. My grandfather's first name was Israel and he thought it was his country. In my own sense of this issue as an American Jew, I have been on both sides of this. At this point I think it is very important for there to be separation of religion and state. It's not good for Jews. It's not good for Muslims. It's not good for Christians. The marriage of state and religion is inherently problematic.

We call for a new kind of offensive in the Middle East because our current approach has a track record and it's not a good one.