Year of INDEPENDENT voter…?

Rocky Anderson Update, multiple parties, independent thinkers on road to U.S. Presidency 2012

Excerpt, editing, new material by Carolyn Bennett

Forty percent of U.S. citizens consider themselves “independents.”  Fifty-four percent of U.S. voters want to see a new political party.

“Is 2012 the Year of the Independents?”

U.S. presidential candidate Rocky Anderson left the Democratic Party in 2011 after which he received an e-mail [query] from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to which he responded in these words —

How dare you send an email with the subject line ‘Standing Strong.’ 

You did not [stand strong] on Iraq. You didn’t do it on torture. You didn’t do it on ‘Signing Statements.’ You haven’t done it on Afghanistan. You haven’t done it on defense spending. You haven’t done it on real health care reform. You haven’t done it on energy policy and the climate crisis. You haven’t done it on the evisceration of our system of checks and balances through the invocation of the state secrets doctrine. And you haven’t done it on the debt ceiling fiasco. 

Those who have stood strong in Congress can be counted on one hand - and they have faced nothing but opposition by Nancy Pelosi and most of the rest of the so-called Democrats.

Rocky Anderson, his campaign says, feels the Constitution of the United States has been ripped apart, and neither political party [Republican nor Democratic] has stood up to fight for the rights of Americans.

Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper.

It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party.

In December 2011, Rocky Anderson co-founded Justice Party USA, a political party that welcomes all disenfranchised voters — liberals, conservatives, Independent voters and members of other political parties. The goals of Justice Party USA are clear: Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, and Social Justice.  Anderson again:

“I believe that all of us together can help make a better world — individually and collectively.

“I believe in the equal application of the laws, rather than the two-tiered system of justice promoted by Bush and Obama.

“I believe in not burdening later generations with our reckless spending and I feel that it is outrageous to spend trillions of dollars for unnecessary wars and, while they are being fought, give massive tax cuts to the wealthy.

“I believe government has a vital role to play in improving education, maintaining and improving the nation’s infrastructure, providing transit opportunities, and building peaceful relations with other nations.

“I also believe that our government has a vital duty to provide international leadership to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate disruption.

If my fighting for the restoration of the rule of law and the bolstering of our most fundamental constitutional values makes me a conservative, a liberal or a patriot — you can use whatever term you like.”

Sources and notes

April 9, 2012, press release

ROCKY ANDERSON CAMPAIGN

Rocky Anderson will be in California April 14-22, 2012:

• Peace and Freedom Party Debate (Santa Cruz, April 14
• “The Year of the Independent” Hammer Forum (UCLA, April 19)
• Maggie Phair Institution debate with third party candidates (Los Angeles, April 21
• Peace and Freedom Party debate (Culver City, April 22) 

For More Information or to schedule an interview:  Charlotte Scot (505) 603 2739/cscot@comcast.net.

314 West 300 South, Suite 225 Salt Lake City, UT  84101

 P.O. Box 3868   Salt Lake City, UT  84110

In addition to being a former Salt Lake City, Utah, two-term mayor, Rocky Anderson is founder of High Road for Human Rights and co-founder of the United States’ newest political party, Justice Party USA. On Americans Elect, he is a Declared Presidential Candidate.

Anderson is recipient of Bill of Rights Defense Committee Patriot Award • The Progressive Democrats of America Spine Award • One of Top Twenty activists in the world on climate change - Business Week • Top ten straight advocates in the United States for LGBT equality - Human Rights Campaign • EPA Climate Protection Award • The Sierra Club Distinguished Service Award • Respect the Earth Planet Defender Award • National Association of Hispanic Publications Presidential Award • The Drug Policy Alliance Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award • League of United Latin American Citizens Profile in Courage Award • Morehouse University Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award • World Leadership Award for environmental protection.

PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY

Founded June 23, 1967, “by people who wanted to vote for something they could support …, the Peace and Freedom Party is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality.”

The Party “represent[s] the working class, those without capital in a capitalist society [and organizes] toward a world where cooperation replaces competition, a world where all people are well fed, clothed and housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony.

In 1967 when the Peace and Freedom Party was founded “the Democrats were leading the nation in the war against Vietnam. As the military drained the domestic economy, Republicans and Democrats called for ‘law and order’ to repress Americans who wished to improve their own lives. Black militants were rising up angrily in the cities, while Filipino and Latino farm workers were organizing labor unions in the fields. Women were agitating for full equality with men. These forces of discontent united to create an electoral arm of ‘The Movement.’

A massive voter registration drive placed the Peace and Freedom Party on the California ballot in January 1968. On both the state and national level, [the Party has] shown a willingness to work with other like minded groups, trying to build a mass based socialist party throughout the country.”  http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/about-us/about-peace-and-freedom 

On April 14, 2012 (Saturday at 7:00 .p.m., Ocean Street in Santa Cruz), the Peace and Freedom Party holds a Presidential candidate Forum

Participants in the forum: Stewart Alexander, nominee of the Socialist Party USA; Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson, nominee of the Justice Party USA; Stephen Durham, nominee of the Freedom Socialist Party; Peta Lindsay, nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.The Peace and Freedom candidate for U.S. Senate, Marsha Feinland, will also speak. See www.peaceandfreedom.org

http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/apr-14-santa-cruz-candidate-forum 

On April 22, 2012 (Sunday at 1:00 p.m., Peace Center West, 3916 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City), the Peace and Freedom Party sponsors “The Political Party of the 99%: The Candidates and Issues.” Participating are all four candidates for President (as 14th) and Senate candidate Marsha Feinland. http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/apr-22-los-angeles-candidate-forum

HAMMER FORUM [UCLA]

Hammer Forum offers an ongoing series of lectures, conversations, performances, and panel discussions, timely, thought-provoking events addressing current social and political issues.

Hammer Forum is moderated by Ian Masters, journalist, author, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, and host of the radio programs Background Briefing Sundays at 11a.m. and The Daily Briefing Monday-Thursdays at 5 p.m. on KPFK 90.7 FM.

All hammer public programs are open to the public without cost. Hammer members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not required.

Hammer Forum is made possible, in part, by Bronya and Andrew Galef. Public programs are made possible by Hammer Members and the generosity of Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Bronya and Andrew Galef, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, and an anonymous donor. http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/detail/program_id/1164 

On April 19, 2012, Hammer presents “The Year of the Independents — Can a Third-Party President Get Elected?” 

With more Americans registering as independents than as Democrats or Republicans, can an outsider make it to the White House in 2012?

Joining this discussion of the changing electoral landscape — Rocky Anderson, Kellen Arno, and Buddy Roemer.

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is running for president with the newly formed Justice Party USA; his citizen-financed campaign rejects special interest and corporate funding.

Arno is National Field Director of AmericansElect.org, an online presidential nominating process aimed at providing a competitive, nonpartisan ticket.

Former Louisiana governor Roemer is a conservative Democrat who served four terms as a U.S. congressman and never accepted special interest money. His current presidential campaign limits donations to $100. http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/programs/cat/7

MAGGIE PHAIR INSTITUTE

The Maggie Phair Institute participates in several broad-based programs among them “the Martin Luther King Coalition for Jobs Justice and Peace.”  In 2011, the Maggie Phair Institute sponsored a playwriting contest on the “Palmer Raids” which were engineered to advance the careers of aspiring politicians and to bolster the power of the FBI as a national police state apparatus. These were serial attacks on immigrant communizes of the United States after World War I.

On April 21, 2012, the Maggie Phair Institute will hold a Presidential Debate, “Education for Equality,” educator@phairinstitute.org

Maggie Phair

Maggie Phair is a peace activist whose opposition to war began with the dropping of the atom bomb and has included opposition to the Korean War, Vietnam War and to U.S. intervention in Central America and the Middle East. In August 1990, Maggie Phair helped organize the first demonstration in Los Angeles opposing a U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.

Born just before the stock market crash of 1929 and growing up in the shadow of the Great Depression, Maggie Phair’s human rights activism began at San Fernando High School when she brought in the director of the Urban League to challenge racial slurs made by a teacher against Japanese who had just been released from relocation camps. Maggie opposed the discriminatory standards that enrolled all Chicano students in only agriculture or home economics majors.

Soon after enrolling at UCLA Maggie Phair joined the Congress on Racial Equality, helping to desegregate Bullock’s Tearoom, and Bimini Baths, a popular swimming pool. Anti-racist work convinced her of the need for full employment — and for democratic socialism.

In 1967 she became a founding member of the Peace and Freedom Party of California to provide a viable alternative for voters who support civil rights and oppose war. She is a strong advocate for free speech — even for the bad guys. http://phairinstitute.org/phairinstitute2_005.htm

Images

Vote for person not party: independent%20sticker%20big.jpg. Late-deciding independent voters most ... weblogs.sun-sentinel.com

Imagine create learn [independents' credo] Maybe you're an independent thinker who can't be coerced into status quo ... soulmeetsworld.com

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