By Rick Lucke
DECEMBER 2, 2011

On Wednesday night, November 30^th, I saw Rocky Anderson on Rachel Maddow’s show where he presented his thoughts about running for president representing a newly formed political party, the Justice Party.  You can find a video clip of his appearance here and here.  He appears at approximately 4:40 into the clip. 

Reported in the Salt Lake City Political Buzz Examiner: 

Anderson says he will reach out through social media with an agenda he believes the American people support. That agenda includes: Tax the rich and corporations; end the wars, bring troops home, and cut military spending; strengthen Social Security and Medicare; end corporate welfare and get money out of politics; transition to a clean energy economy, raise wages, create jobs and protect worker rights.

Anderson said in an interview Wednesday on KSL’s Doug Wright Show, “We’ve been voting as a nation against our own interests year after year. Most Americans - whether they consider themselves on the right, left, center, whatever - understand that their interests have been undermined by these folks in Washington, both in the White House and in Congress, who are acting as if they’re on retainer with their largest campaign contributors rather than doing what’s in the public’s interest.” Anderson is talking about limiting contributions to the Justice Party to $100 per election. 

During his appearance on Rachel Maddow, Anderson said, “What we’ve seen from the Democratic and Republican parties, where they’ve brought this country is absolutely tragic.”  He says we are in a new “Gilded Age” and we are seeing the undermining of the very core of our national values.

He goes on to say one of the main platform agendas would be to get the corrupting influence of “corporate and other concentrated wealth” out of our political system, also adding, “Congress and the White House have been conducting themselves as if they are on retainer with Wall Street.” 

Anderson addresses a number of other concerns that resulted from the Bush/Cheney regime and continued under Obama or have not been properly addressed by the current administration and Congress.  Among those concerns are what kind of country we decide to be with regard to how we address climate change, requiring accountability of war criminals, which led him to what he labeled our “two-tiered system of justice” that favors certain groups of criminals while disadvantaging others and our “two-tier economy”. 

Anderson offers an example of one man who is serving 55 years in prison for 3 counts of selling marijuana while those who committed numerous felonies under the Bush administration were never prosecuted and the FISA amendments crafted in 2006 and finally passed in 2008 granted retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that committed felonies in collusion with the Bush/Cheney regime.

He also states that Obama, as a Senator, had promised that he would not support retroactive immunity for those telecommunications companies that had violated our laws and would filibuster any bill promoting such, and then betrayed that promise and voted for retroactive immunity and has made no effort whatsoever to hold American war criminals accountable for their crimes.  Unfortunately, at this point Obama can only be seen as an accomplice in those crimes. 

Anderson also addresses the human rights abuses that are becoming commonplace and acceptable in the American discourse.  Topics that desperately need to be addressed, and are not, were front and center in Anderson’s presentation.  As this is just beginning, there is not a lot of information online about it yet.  I hope Anderson and the Justice Party can make a legitimate run and initiate the kinds of change America needs; I think we can rest assured that neither the Democratic Party, nor the Republican Party, will.

While I think the chances of Anderson actually winning the presidency may be remote, I think his presence in the campaign would create much the same dynamic as OWS has created, bringing to the forefront the most issues the current batch of politicians are ignoring.  And just maybe, in the next year, enough people might awaken to the prospects offered by such a candidate as Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party.

If Rocky runs, he’ll have my vote, for it’s clear that continuing down our current path leads to nowhere.  Before we can achieve the changes we need, we must correct the dysfunctional nature of the system by which we implement those changes.

By Rick Lucke
DECEMBER 2, 2011

On Wednesday night, November 30^th, I saw Rocky Anderson on Rachel Maddow’s show where he presented his thoughts about running for president representing a newly formed political party, the Justice Party.  You can find a video clip of his appearance here and here.  He appears at approximately 4:40 into the clip. 

Reported in the Salt Lake City Political Buzz Examiner: 

Anderson says he will reach out through social media with an agenda he believes the American people support. That agenda includes: Tax the rich and corporations; end the wars, bring troops home, and cut military spending; strengthen Social Security and Medicare; end corporate welfare and get money out of politics; transition to a clean energy economy, raise wages, create jobs and protect worker rights.

Anderson said in an interview Wednesday on KSL’s Doug Wright Show, “We’ve been voting as a nation against our own interests year after year. Most Americans - whether they consider themselves on the right, left, center, whatever - understand that their interests have been undermined by these folks in Washington, both in the White House and in Congress, who are acting as if they’re on retainer with their largest campaign contributors rather than doing what’s in the public’s interest.” Anderson is talking about limiting contributions to the Justice Party to $100 per election. 

During his appearance on Rachel Maddow, Anderson said, “What we’ve seen from the Democratic and Republican parties, where they’ve brought this country is absolutely tragic.”  He says we are in a new “Gilded Age” and we are seeing the undermining of the very core of our national values.

He goes on to say one of the main platform agendas would be to get the corrupting influence of “corporate and other concentrated wealth” out of our political system, also adding, “Congress and the White House have been conducting themselves as if they are on retainer with Wall Street.” 

Anderson addresses a number of other concerns that resulted from the Bush/Cheney regime and continued under Obama or have not been properly addressed by the current administration and Congress.  Among those concerns are what kind of country we decide to be with regard to how we address climate change, requiring accountability of war criminals, which led him to what he labeled our “two-tiered system of justice” that favors certain groups of criminals while disadvantaging others and our “two-tier economy”. 

Anderson offers an example of one man who is serving 55 years in prison for 3 counts of selling marijuana while those who committed numerous felonies under the Bush administration were never prosecuted and the FISA amendments crafted in 2006 and finally passed in 2008 granted retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that committed felonies in collusion with the Bush/Cheney regime.

He also states that Obama, as a Senator, had promised that he would not support retroactive immunity for those telecommunications companies that had violated our laws and would filibuster any bill promoting such, and then betrayed that promise and voted for retroactive immunity and has made no effort whatsoever to hold American war criminals accountable for their crimes.  Unfortunately, at this point Obama can only be seen as an accomplice in those crimes. 

Anderson also addresses the human rights abuses that are becoming commonplace and acceptable in the American discourse.  Topics that desperately need to be addressed, and are not, were front and center in Anderson’s presentation.  As this is just beginning, there is not a lot of information online about it yet.  I hope Anderson and the Justice Party can make a legitimate run and initiate the kinds of change America needs; I think we can rest assured that neither the Democratic Party, nor the Republican Party, will.

While I think the chances of Anderson actually winning the presidency may be remote, I think his presence in the campaign would create much the same dynamic as OWS has created, bringing to the forefront the most issues the current batch of politicians are ignoring.  And just maybe, in the next year, enough people might awaken to the prospects offered by such a candidate as Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party.

If Rocky runs, he’ll have my vote, for it’s clear that continuing down our current path leads to nowhere.  Before we can achieve the changes we need, we must correct the dysfunctional nature of the system by which we implement those changes.