Whether he was suing to improve the treatment of mentally ill people in prisons, calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush for lying our nation into a war, or killing the DARE program in Salt Lake City and calling for an end to the failed “war on drugs,” Rocky Anderson has always spoken truth to power – and spoken the truth about power. 

Rocky Anderson's presidential campaign is helping forge the way toward real change through a sustained people’s movement – and to give voice to the vast majority of people ignored – and abused – by the Democrats and Republicans.

Please help out Rocky, who is fighting every day for the public interest. Rocky has fought for many years:

• For an end to corruption in government,
• For equal rights (including federal protections for marriage equality),
• For an end to aggressive wars and imperialist domination of other nations,
• For adherence to the rule of law,
• For an end to corporate exploitation of consumers and workers,
• For protections against governmental abuses of individual rights and liberties,
• For climate protection, and
• For compassionate reforms of immigration practices and policies.

And does he fight! 

Check out his biographical sketch on Wikipedia to learn of his remarkable achievements as a lawyer, two-term Mayor of Salt Lake City, founder of High Road for Human Rights, and as a community activist.

Who else tells it like THAT?

IF YOU AGREE THAT ROCKY’S VOICE NEEDS TO BE HEARD – THAT WE ALL NEED TO KEEP PUSHING TO BRING ABOUT REAL CHANGES IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST – PLEASE HELP OUT NOW. 

THE ANDERSON/RODRIGUEZ CAMPAIGN IS RUNNING ON A SHOE-STRING – BUT WE STILL NEED THAT SHOE-STRING. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE TODAY. IF EVERYONE DOES HIS/HER SHARE, WE WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUE THE PUSH FOR

• AN END TO CORRUPTING MONEY IN POLITICS,
• A DECENT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM,
• AN END TO THE STRANGLEHOLD ON OUR GOVERNMENT BY THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX,
• POLICIES THAT WILL PUT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE BACK TO WORK,
• AN END TO TRAGIC, WASTEFUL, ILLEGAL WARS,
•  RESTORATION OF THE RULE OF LAW AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR TORTURE, ILLEGAL SPYING ON U.S. CITIZENS, AND FINANCIAL FRAUD ON WALL STREET.

Tom Hayden recently wrote an article imploring people to support President Obama. Someone wrote to Rocky, forwarding the Hayden article, urging Rocky to give up the fight. Imagine there not being a voice like Rocky’s at this moment in our nation’s history!  Here is Rocky’s response:

Dear ______ -

I read Tom Hayden's piece several days ago and think it is so beneath him -- particularly the "white liberal-left" and "white blindness" racist condescensions.  There are, of course, many in the Black community who are justifiably appalled at Obama's performance (or lack thereof).  See here and here.  If Hayden wants to make this about race, perhaps he should focus on the fact that, after four years of Obama, far more Blacks are living in poverty and four times as many Black women in the U.S. are dying in connection with pregnancy and childbirth than White women.

Hayden never would have written such an apologist piece for an imperial militarist and corporatist regime in the '60s or '70s.  Can you imagine such a piece by him then, gushingly endorsing Nixon because of his overtures to China, his signing of the Clean Air Act, and his establishment of the EPA?

Amazingly, he writes as if he is clueless about Obama's miserable performance regarding climate change and energy -- and the fact that tuition rates have skyrocketed under his administration.  He worries in the first paragraph of his piece about what Romney would or wouldn't do regarding these issues -- as if Obama hasn't made it all far worse.

And doesn't it occur to Hayden that the reason so many Americans are misinformed is because our President is such a lousy leader/communicator?  (Why else would "only six percent of Americans believe[ ] the stimulus had created any jobs"?) 

We could have had a single-payer Medicare-for-all health care system had Obama stood up against the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.  Even with the vast majority of the American people favoring single-payer at the time, our President wouldn't even let it see the light of day -- then rapidly and cowardly abandoned a public option.

I've described my "strategic" thinking to you before.  You know full well that I am campaigning to help encourage and inspire a broad-based people's movement -- the only way we'll ever achieve real social, economic, and environmental justice in this nation.  You apparently think it healthy for everyone just to shut up and be polite in the face of the Obama administration outrages.  Amazing for someone who writes and teaches about the virtues of citizen engagement.  Truly amazing.

Apparently you just don't want to face your utter complicity in the outrages of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.  You would like to see everyone just get in line and be quiet about illegal wars of aggression, the abandonment of the rule of law, the shredding of due process and habeas corpus, the abysmal health care system that causes the deaths of thousands of poor and middle class people (particularly people of color) every week, and the caving in to Wall St. campaign contributors at the vast expense of most people in the U.S. (and abroad).

Would you have imagined four years ago that you would be a cheerleader for a president who brags about his personal participation in deciding who will be killed in several nations, knowing that hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent men, women, and children will be killed too?  And does it ever occur to you why so many so-called "terrorists" despise the U.S. and want to strike out against us?  Or that we're creating more enemies and instilling more hatred and hostility toward the U.S. as a result of our disregard of so many nations' sovereignty and as we kill and maim people throughout the Muslim world with such reckless abandon?  (I wrote this before the recent killings of the U.S. Ambassador and three other diplomats in Libya and the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo -- further evidence of the hatred we have generated by our international belligerence.)

Would you ever have imagined you would so enthusiastically support a president who orders that U.S. citizens be assassinated?  (So far, at least three U.S. citizens have been killed by drones -- one of whom was a 16 year-old boy.)  Would you have imagined you would support a president who asked for, and signed into law, the authority to kidnap people anywhere (including U.S. citizens) and have them imprisoned up to the rest of their lives, without charges, trial, legal assistance, or the right of habeas corpus?  (Imagine what you'd be doing and writing were that same president a Republican.  The crass partisanship, instead of principle, that causes so many Democrats to blindly support this president is morally astounding.)

Damn straight I'm angry -- and disgusted.  Please read Ionesco's Rhinoceros, an allegory about the rise of fascism in Europe.  Whenever you write lately, I hear you "harumphing" and can imagine that horn growing from your forehead.  In a decade, you can be really proud of your refusal to stand up in opposition to the march toward authoritarianism, the capitulation of our government to Wall Street, and the gross violations of civil and human rights.

It's just amazing how "pragmatists" like you are selling out so conveniently, as our Constitution is being shredded and as our nation continues to cause so much misery in the lives of millions of people around the world.  And as the administration persecutes and prosecutes those who inform us about government crimes and other misdeeds, while allowing the criminals to go free.

Please feel free to distribute this as you see fit.  (I'll do the same.)  As I mentioned to you when you were in SLC, I'd love to debate you any time and any place about all of this.  You and others need to be shaken into understanding what your blind obsequiousness is doing to our nation and world.

Hayden and you are so optimistic about what you can push Obama to do during the next four years.  (It all reminds me of abused spouse syndrome.)  Where have all of you been during the past four years to push Obama to bring war criminals to justice?  To bring those who have illegally spied on U.S. citizens to justice?  (It's worth noting that you supported Obama four years ago after he lied to us as a U.S. Senator and voted to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that had committed federal felonies by providing the Bush administration with confidential information about their customers.)  To end the drone killings of innocent people?  To break up the too-big-to-fail banks and regulate Wall St. to protect the American people (and millions of others throughout the world) from another financial melt-down?  To combat, rather than exacerbate, climate change?  To end the disastrous "war on drugs"?  To reduce, rather than continue to increase, the world-record incarceration rate, particularly of people of color?  To provide decent health care to all Americans?  To end poverty, rather than sit back and support a president who never speaks of it and who has "led" this nation while the poverty rate has increased to 1965 levels (and while our child-poverty rate is the worst in the industrialized world, except for Romania)?  Are you aware of his pitiful record on presidential pardons?  Or the fact that maternal and infant mortality rates are almost the worst in the developed world?  Are you aware that he perpetuated yet another big lie in his embarrassingly sycophantic speech to AIPAC about Ahmadinejad supposedly saying (he never did say it) that Israel should be wiped off the map?

Obama's not a statesman, nor is he a "leader".  He is a prostitute for the rich and powerful -- and has betrayed, with tragic results, the sacred trust placed in him by the American people.  The greatest problem we face is that too many, like you, seem to have no line you will draw.  Are no crimes too great, is there no undermining of the rule of law too egregious, for you to refrain from saying "No more"?

Best wishes, Rocky

Watch Rocky in recent interviews:

Donate today. Sign up today.

Because our government is controlled by and run for the benefit of the wealthy – while the public interest is repeatedly betrayed.

Because innocent people in at least four nations are being killed by U.S. drones, and our president is bragging about it.

Because the U.S. poverty rate has now exceeded the poverty rate in 1965, wiping out the progress of the “War on Poverty”.

Because neither of the major party candidates – lapdogs to Wall Street and the insurance and pharmaceutical industries – even mention “poverty”, let alone discuss how to eliminate it.

Because those responsible for torture have been given a free pass from legal accountability by President Obama.

Because not one of those who committed hundreds of federal felonies by illegally spying on American citizens have been held accountable.

Because the Bush/Obama administrations have made a mockery of the rule of law, due process, and the War Power Clause of the Constitution, as they have ramped up the imperial presidency.

Because Wall Street crooks have not been held accountable for their massive fraud – and they’re still benefiting while most Americans are reeling from the economic melt-down.

Because Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House created the conditions for the 2008 economic disaster by deregulating the financial industry at the behest of the predatory banks.

Because between 2005-09, Latino households, on average, lost 66% of their household wealth, African-American households lost 53%, and White households lost 16%.

Because child poverty in the U.S. is worse than in every other industrialized nation other than Romania.

Because U.S. maternal mortality – women dying in connection with pregnancy or childbirth – is worse than in 49 other nations, even though we spend the most on health care.  And in the U.S., maternal mortality among African-American women is four times as great as among White women.

Because infant mortality in the U.S. is next to the worst in the developed world.  Only in Latvia do more children die during their first year.

Because when what is often called “Obamacare” (which should be called “InsuranceCompanyProfitPlan”) is fully implemented, 30 million people in the U.S. will still be without essential health care.

Because millions of U.S. working people are unemployed after the Democrats and Republicans sent jobs overseas to please multinational corporations who pay far less in wages and benefits to foreign workers.

Because President Obama promised leadership on climate change and hasn’t done anything to protect the future, while he has approved more offshore drilling and pushed non-existent “clean coal”.

Because 2.3 million people are languishing behind the bars of our prisons and jails – by far the highest incarceration rate in the world – with astoundingly racist implications.

Because we’re spending less on education and more on prisons – all while the U.S. is losing its global competitive edge.

IF YOU’RE NOT ANGRY, YOU’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!

BUT DON’T JUST BE ANGRY.
SUPPORT ROCKY ANDERSON.

CALL TO ACTION

Please do two simple things:

• Contribute to Rocky campaign today. Click here to donate now.

• Join Rocky’s Revolution. Sign up here.

Learn more about Rocky Anderson's solutions here.

We find Labor Day, the holiday created to celebrate the contributions of working men and women, in a diminished state this election year. It's not unreasonable to ask just what we are celebrating in our day of growing economic injustice.

Between 2007 and 2010, while median family wealth fell by 38.8 percent, the wealth of the Walton family (of the Wal-Mart fortune) rose from $73.3 billion to $89.5 billion. In 2010, as the Walton’s wealth rose and most other Americans’ wealth declined, it is now the case that the Walton family wealth is as large as the bottom 48.8 million families in the wealth distribution (constituting 41.5 percent of all American families) combined. 

Bernie Sanders' Labor Day statement explains, "If you can believe it, the last study on this subject showed that in 2010, 93 percent of all new income created from the previous year went to the top one percent, while the bottom 99 percent of people had the privilege of enjoying the remaining 7 percent. In other words, the rich are getting much richer while almost everyone else is falling behind."

So what do we conclude on this Labor Day? Sure, we can pretend it will be healed by the current administration who, being purchased by Wall Street, has not held a single fraudulent criminal accountable for the activity that brought about the economic collapse, while corporate profits soar to record highs. We can pretend supporting someone like Mitt Romney will compel the change we need -- a man who plans to perpetuate trickle-down mythology, the very same policy that led us down this path.

What about those of us who are not willing to give in to hopelessness? What about those of us who refuse to remain silent while injustice is normalized and workers' unions are increasingly pacified?

Unlike what we've come to expect from politicians, extending his political career is not Rocky Anderson's motive. He made the decision to run for president because he knew our country needed a voice -- a voice for the people in an age of corruption, a voice for public interest solutions amidst the private special interests in Washington.

The GOP spent last week manufacturing a narrative in which the cause of our economic recession was Obama's weak policy. Let's be clear: Obama's weakness is his unwillingness to move forward with progressive economic policies such as a WPA program and raising the minimum wage -- policies with a history of success.

This Labor Day, as election day nears, make the principled decision to get involved. Support a leader who needs your contribution to continue traveling the country with a positive message, unceasingly optimistic about the future of an America in which we the people will come together for the good of everyone. Donate today.

Waterbury, CT. 8/21/12 Tonight, The Independent Party of Connecticut nominated Rocky Anderson and Luis Rodriguez as its Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. YES! Rocky will be on the ballot in Connecticut. He is getting on the ballot in more and more states and in many states where his name is not on the ballot we will be able to enter his name as a write-in candidate. By the way, the Conneticut Independent Party is the third largest party in the state!

Tomorrow evening Rocky will be at The Winchester Restaurant & Bar 12 Selden St, Woodbridge, CT 06525 for information: 206-261-4664. This is a fundraiser: $20 donation.

When you donate to our grassroots campaign, you are contributing to the advancing of a voice for the people -- rather than a tool of the corrupt, corporate special interests that have taken over both the Democratic and Republican parties. Rocky is running because of his unrelenting belief in the people of our country, and the change we can bring about if only we will come together. Will you support a candidate who stands with you, or a candidate who is owned by private interests? 

Click here to donate today.

This is from Rocky's appearance with Chris Vanocur on "On the Record" which originally aired 8/5/2012. Watch the whole interview here:

Ver en Espanol

Rocky is doing this:

• For the same reason he dedicated so much of his law practice for 21 years to provide access to the judicial system for those who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

• For the same reason he worked for many years to successfully vindicate the rights of people who were harmed by abuses of power by governmental and corporate agents.

A proven commitment to the rule of law and the principle of justice for all

Rocky is doing this: 

• For the same reason he stood firmly for marriage equality and, as Mayor of Salt Lake City, provided protection from discrimination on account of sexual orientation and equal benefits for all city employees and their partners.

• For the same reason he successfully challenged a state English-only law, vastly expanded hiring, retention, and promotion of people from the ethnic minority community, and fought against discriminatory enforcement of immigration laws.

A proven commitment to equality under the law – and dignity for all throughout our communities

Rocky is doing this:

• For the same reason he was the only major-city mayor to call for President Bush’s impeachment because of his deceit in the run-up to the war of aggression against Iraq and related human rights abuses.

• For the same reason he fought successfully, sometimes free of charge, for the protection of civil rights and, after he left the Mayor’s Office, founded High Road for Human Rights.

A proven commitment to peace, protection of civil and human rights, and an end to empire-building through wars of aggression

Rocky is doing this: 

• For the same reason he was one of the top climate change activists in the world, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 31% in city operations and co-hosted three major gatherings of dozens of mayors to promote municipal climate protection initiatives.
  
  
• For the same reason he implemented perhaps the most comprehensive restorative justice programs in the nation and fought to end the disastrous “war on drugs”. 

A proven commitment to economic, social, and environmental justice

And why would YOU help him in his campaign?

• If YOU care about peace and an end to empire-building at a time when both major-party candidates, because of their obsequiousness to the AIPAC lobby and other major funders, are outrageously calling for war against Iran.

• If YOU understand the power and necessity of dissent in eliminating the plutocracy, where money, rather than a concern for the public interest, controls the White House and Congress.

• If YOU understand how crucial U.S. leadership is in combating global climate chaos.

• If YOU believe in a principled approach to human rights and the equal application of the rule of law at a time when both major-party candidates support indefinite detention without due process and the targeting of U.S. citizens for assassination – and when they favor a two-tiered system of justice where the rich and powerful are not prosecuted or otherwise held accountable for egregious violations of our nation’s laws, including massive financial fraud on Wall St., war crimes, and illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens’ communications.

• If YOU understand how dangerous it would be not to have a major alternative voice speaking up in opposition to the outrages of the Republican and Democratic Parties and their candidates. 

• Because this is an ideal moment for the building of a broad-based, long-term people’s movement for peace, economic justice, and environmental protection.

Rocky, his running mate Luis Rodriguez, and people throughout the nation volunteering their time and energies to the campaign, are working hard every day out of passion for making a better, more just, healthier nation. 

They are getting the word out in remarkable ways:

"Rocky Anderson is rocking the vote"

"Rocky Anderson on the issues that matter most"

"Rocky Anderson vs. the establishment"

"Rocky Anderson: A man in his own words"

Just imagine what they can do with your help!

Your contribution is essential to leveraging this campaign into being an integral part of a long-term, successful movement for government that serves the people, not just the corrupting sources of concentrated wealth that currently have a stranglehold on our elected officials and the Democratic and Republican Parties.

If you believe in this movement, if you believe in the need to restore the rule of law and our most fundamental constitutional values, please be generous in your support of the Anderson/Rodriguez campaign – an essential component of a long-term movement for a more peaceful, sustainable, secure nation and world.

Click here for Spanish translation.

Luis Rodriguez, a leading Chicano writer, speaker, gang expert and interventionist, and activist for justice in urban peace, the arts, labor, and human rights, has joined Rocky Anderson's 2012 presidential campaign as Anderson’s vice presidential running mate. "The search for a highly competent, dignified, principled running mate has been arduous," Rocky stated.  "Luis exceeds any expectations I had. He will inform, uplift, and motivate in this campaign, just as he does every day in his inspirational work." 

He is a co-founder of the Network for Revolutionary Change, trying to fill the gap of strategic and unified leadership among the poor, the pushed-out, the dismissed, and forgotten.  He's also co-founder of the nonprofit Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore and its publishing wing, Tia Chucha Press, in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.  He has fifteen published books in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and children's literature, including the bestselling 1993 memoir Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and its 2011 sequel, It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing.  His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicano Tribune, The Progressive, Philadelphia Inquirer magazine, The Nation, L.A. Weekly, U.S. News & World Report, Fox News Latino, and the Huffington Post, among others.  He has lived and worked in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Bernardino, and fifteen years in Chicago.  He's now a resident of San Fernando, CA.

For over thirty years Luis conducted workshops, readings, and talks in prisons, juvenile facilities, homeless shelters, migrant camps, universities, public and private schools, conferences, churches, Native American reservations, and men's conferences.

Luis has received the Inner City Struggle of East L.A.’s “Spirit of Struggle”/Ruben Salazar Award; the “Local Hero of Community” Award from KCET-TV of L.A. and Union Bank of California; “Hero of Nonviolence” Award from Rev. Michael Beckwith and the Agape Christian Center in Culver City, CA; and an "Unsung Heroes of Compassion" Award, presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

According to Rocky Anderson, who practiced law (including civil rights and constitutional law), served as Mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years, and founded and served as Executive Director of High Road for Human Rights, “Unlike most candidates for high public office, Luis brings with him a wealth of knowledge and real-life experience, inspirational personal growth, and proven commitment to social, economic, and environmental justice. Such justice is an essential element of a nation committed to equal opportunity, peace, and genuine freedom for all.”

Rodriguez stated, "I'm honored to be on this ticket with Rocky Anderson. It's important to find a politically independent means to voice the real issues of justice in this country. The Justice Party comes at a crucial time, when the truth about who holds power and wealth in this country is daily more evident and the failures of the two-party system become increasingly irreparable. This is a vision for a new America, new ideas, new forms of struggle--of true justice in our time and for generations to come."

According to Rodriguez, "The Justice Party is part of a growing movement in the United States for true peace, justice, equity, and dignity.  People are understanding more and more that to have a healthy and full development for each person we need to have the healthy and full development of all."

"My aim in being part of this ticket with Rocky Anderson in the Justice Party is to help spread the conversation in this country about how we need to incorporate more voices, stories, ideas, and people into how we govern and take care of everyone.  Two directions for true justice are to have meaningful, respectful and healthy relations with the environment, the earth, and its bountiful resources.  And to have meaningful, respectful, and healthy relations with each other. "

 Hear Rocky Anderson, interviewed by Mitchell Rabin, call for a restoration of the rule of law, the application of fundamental constitutional principles, and the urgent need to rein in the imperial presidency ramped up during the Bush/Obama years.

Listen to Rocky's Independence Day message.

Please share the following with your friends and family, and especially with young people who too often have not learned the basics about history, our Constitution, and their role in preserving our Republic:

The Fourth of July is a time of celebration for the principles underlying the Declaration of Independence: 

• All people are created equal. 
• All of us are endowed with unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.   
• Governments are instituted to secure those rights and they derive their “just powers from the consent of the governed.”  

We often take these ideas for granted, but they are profound and very different than the principles guiding governments in many other nations.

The Constitution provides for a constrained government, with limited powers, and a separation of power among three co-equal branches of government – the courts, the Congress, and the Executive Branch.  Each branch is to provide a check against abuses by the other branches. 

At the core of the Constitution is a commitment to the principle that what is allowed or disallowed is determined by the rule of law, not by the dictates of one person or a cabal of a few people.   

The Constitution was created to “form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”   

However, these documents are not sufficient for the fulfillment of their grand promises and principles.  Without constant diligence by each generation, our nation is at risk of transformation into a tyranny, where our liberties are lost, where an imperial presidency assumes dictatorial powers, and where, bit by bit, the principles upon which our nation was founded are eroded.

As he was leaving the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin was asked by a woman, “Well, doctor, what do we have – a monarchy or a republic?”  Franklin responded, “A republic, ma’am, if you can keep it.”

That is the challenge for every generation.  Constant vigilance is essential for liberty and the preservation of our republic. 

We must face the truth: As a nation, we are now doing a very poor job of preserving our Republic and our freedoms, which, in earlier times, distinguished the United States from authoritarian regimes in other nations. Consider the following:

War Power

The War Power Clause of the Constitution makes it clear that Congress, not the President, has the sole power to decide whether to go to war.  Yet, without a congressional determination that our country should engage in war, President Bush illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, a nation that posed no danger to the United States.

Without any authorization from Congress, President Obama has ordered military strikes against Libya, as well as killings from bombs delivered by drones (which have resulted in the murder of innocent civilians – men, women, and children) – all of which are acts of war – in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. 

All of this has been in blatant violation of the War Power Clause, yet when these usurpations have been challenged in our judicial system, the courts have, in derogation of their constitutional responsibilities, begged off, refusing to decide the vital constitutional issues on the purported basis that they are “political questions”.  

Due Process

The Due Process Clause of the Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.  However, without any semblance of due process, President Obama has targeted U.S. citizens for assassination.  President Bush was justifiably criticized for kidnapping, disappearing, and torturing people in violation of domestic and international law.  Now, President Obama skips the kidnapping and incarceration and simply has them killed. 

In 2009, Obama argued he should have the power to indefinitely detain people because they might – in the future – prove to be a danger to the United States.  On New Year’s Eve (2011-2012), Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”), which provides that our government can kidnap people and detain them indefinitely, up to the rest of their lives, without any charges, trial, legal assistance, or right of habeas corpus.  The NDAA is perhaps the most un-American, subversive statute ever passed by Congress and signed into law by any U.S. president.

Separation of powers and the constitutional system of checks and balances.

The separation of power and the system of checks and balances provided for in our Constitution has been eviscerated.  As the President has assumed more and more dictatorial powers, Congress has stood timidly by and the courts have, in several instances, simply dodged their vital constitutional duties. 

Congress has passed laws, then instead of the President vetoing them and providing the opportunity for Congress to override the veto, Presidents Bush and Obama have unconstitutionally issued “signing statements,” indicating that they will not abide by the legislation.  Instead of abiding by the principle that “no person is above the law,” they seem to endorse the tyrannical sentiment of Richard Nixon that “when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”  

That assertion of dictatorial powers has been most clearly demonstrated when people in the Executive Branch (including the president) have violated federal laws by engaging in abuses such as torture and warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens’ communications, in violation of federal statute and the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.  When the illegal conduct has been challenged in federal court, the Executive Branch has asserted the court-made “state-secrets” doctrine, arguing that the court must dismiss the cases to prevent the disclosure of important state secrets.  Hence, the very perpetrator of criminal acts (i.e. the Executive Branch) is allowed to dictate to the courts whether the perpetrator can be held accountable under the law. 

Equal Protection of the Laws

Consistent with the observation in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” is the provision in the Constitution requiring the equal protection of the laws.  However, President Obama, who delayed until 2012 his utterance in support of marriage equality, still asserts that equal treatment under the law for gays and lesbians who want to marry is solely a matter for the states to decide.  Apparently, for Obama, federal protections for equal treatment under the law are appropriate for people of different races or religions, but not for members of the GLBT community.  That is a betrayal of equal treatment under the law, a core value of our Constitutional system.

The principle of equal treatment under the law has also been betrayed by the creation of a two-tiered system of justice, where the rich and powerful are not held accountable under the law, while everyone else is subjected to full accountability, sometimes with a vengeance (as under our Draconian drug laws, which have resulted in the incarceration of more people in the U.S. than are incarcerated for all crimes throughout Western Europe).  Among those who President Obama and his administration have excused from any accountability for their crimes are torturers, those responsible for illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens, and Wall Street criminals who committed massive fraud contributing to the economic crippling of millions of people throughout our nation.

The Supreme Law of the Land

Article 6 of the Constitution provides that the supreme law of the land is the Constitution, laws passed by Congress, and treaties ratified by the United States Senate.  That constitutional mandate, insofar as it relates to treaties, is now treated with disdain, as if our treaty commitments are optional, depending on the dictates of the President. 

For instance, President Bush determined that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to certain instances of torture authorized by him.  The Supreme Court held he was wrong. 

President Obama declared that, as to illegal torture and warrantless surveillance, he would not seek to have anyone held accountable under federal criminal laws, saying we should look forward and not backward.  That, of course, severely undermines the rule of law. 

Tyranny is the proper label for one who purports to determine against whom the law will be applied and under what circumstances.  In the case of torture, President Obama has aggravated the situation by ignoring the mandate in the Convention Against Torture, which requires every signatory nation to prosecute cases of torture as they do other serious offenses.  Obama’s failure to hold people accountable for authorizing or engaging in torture is itself a violation of the Convention Against Torture. 

Perhaps the most important treaty obligation is the duty to refrain from wars of aggression under the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the United Nations Charter.  A war of aggression is comprised of military aggression against another nation that has not attacked, or is not about to attack, the aggressor nation.  For a violation of that international prohibition, people were tried and convicted for aggressive war at the Nuremberg Tribunal. 

President Bush cavalierly disregarded the prohibition in attacking and occupying Iraq and President Obama has continued our nation’s tragic pattern of disregard of the prohibitions against aggressive war by ramping up the war in Afghanistan and ordering drone killings in sovereign nations that pose no threat of harm to the United States.

As is evident, our Constitution is being blatantly violated in many ways by those who are sworn to uphold it – and, in the process, our Republic is being transformed into an international outlaw, with a president that has exercised unprecedented abusive powers, a Congress that is sound asleep at the constitutional switch, and courts that too often step aside and find excuses for not deciding important constitutional questions.

On this Fourth of July, let us keep this in mind: Blindly following leaders who disregard the Constitution and undermine the rule of law is not patriotism.  In fact, it is a betrayal of the values that gave rise to our country’s founding and for which so many have fought and died.

Here’s to each of us doing all that is required to keep our Republic. 

For liberty and justice for all,

Rocky Anderson

 Tomorrow, Wednesday June 27, we will hold an all-day fundraiser. By pledging today you can help us keep up our rapidly growing momentum!

Rocky returned Sunday evening from an action-packed trip to Minnestota, where he presented to two enthusiastic audiences in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and marched in a huge parade with United for All Families, calling for marriage equality. Volunteers are ready to launch a signature gathering campaign to get Rocky on the ballot in Minnesota.

Last Saturday, Rocky learned he will be on the ballot in New Mexico, where he was nominated by the Independent Party as its candidate for President. Already, he has qualified to be on the ballot as the Justice Party's nominee in Mississippi and Utah, and as the Progressive Party's nominee in Oregon. A road team is gathering signatures to get Rocky on the ballot in Arkansas, and it will continue its work throughout the South, the East Coast, and New England. Volunteers are close to obtaining the required signatures to get Rocky on the ballot in Washington State. And we've only yet begun!

Our goal on Wednesday is to raise $10,000 to continue our aggressive campaign and to expand our ballot access successes. If we achieve our fundraising goal, we will break our record for a single day’s contributions. We will also break our record for contributions in a single month. Please be a part of this crucial effort.

We need your help more than ever as we continue to challenge the political duopoly and make the compelling case for a more peaceful, healthy, safe world. We can achieve our goal with your help today. 

23 June, 2012
Rocky Anderson will have his name on the New Mexico ballot as the New Mexico Independent Party Presidential candidate in 2012.
According to Marc Black, co-chair of the NMIP,  “The New Mexico Independent Party was formed in 2008 to provide ballot access for the Nader/Gonzalez campaign.”

On Saturday, June 23rd the party held its nominating convention in Eldorado at Santa Fe.  Rocky Anderson was the unanimous choice by members of the party.  The former two term mayor of Salt Lake City, founder of the High Road for Human Rights and co-founder of the Justice Party is also Ralph Nader’s choice for the 2012 election.

Marc Black says, “Rocky Anderson will appeal to many New Mexicans who want to make a difference in this election. His philosophy is economic, environmental, and social justice.  He has devoted his entire life to working for these goals.  Rocky has a proven record, and I am certain the more people get to know him, the more they will like him.”

54% of American voters are disenchanted with the Republican and Democrat parties and seek a third political party to support. Voters are tired of their politicians being bought and paid for. Anderson limits donations to $100 and does not accept corporate money. The New Mexico Independent Party thinks he represents what many New Mexicans are looking for.

“Americans need to stop thinking of third parties as spoilers and realize it is the Republicans and Democrats who have spoiled our economy, squandered our resources on senseless wars and created the largest disparity in wealth our country has ever known.  Like Ralph Nader, Rocky Anderson can and will make a difference.”