This weekend, the Rocky Anderson for President campaign released a list of ten reasons that Americans should vote for Rocky Anderson, instead of for Barack Obama or any of the Republican presidential candidates in 2012.
I was struck by the broad quality of some of the items on the Anderson campaign’s list of priorities, such as ending corruption, but also by the specific focus of some other items, such as creating strong government control over the Federal Reserve.
Some issues that are very important to me aren’t on this top 10 list, although I know that Rocky Anderson has addressed them elsewhere.
I’ve converted Anderson’s list of the top ten political issues for 2012 into a poll, which you can see below. Check off which of these items are important to you, and leave a comment below to indicate other important issues that Rocky Anderson did not include in this list.
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- Rocky Anderson 2012 campaign
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The restoration of civil liberties is something very important that’s missing from this list, although it’s a major part of the Rocky Anderson presidential campaign.
People have short attention spans. That’s why people have this inate tendecy to group things into digestible numbers. People like non-exhaustible top 10 (or other easy number) lists because they are good intros.
Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans are second class citizens in the U.S. (not that there aren’t similar inequities in other countries). We need strong affirmative action to correct this.
The anti-civil liberties and anti-humanitarian measures taken under Bush and retained and made even worse during the Obama Administration need to be reversed. Assassination by drone is just one element of the problem. Anderson has discussed this very eloquently; I’m unsure why it doesn’t appear in the list of 10 (was there was a decision to limit the number to 10?).
Holding the architects of torture responsible for their abrogation of international and federal law is a top priority. Again, Anderson has discussed this very impressively.
A complete overhaul of immigration policy is needed. It’s vital that this be done in consultation with other countries, and that deep respect be paid to the family unity that Obama has failed to protect.
The “war on terror” is really an international law enforcement problem. We desperately need to repair our relations with other countries so that realistic and effective law enforcement measures can be put in place to prevent terrorist attacks anywhere in the world. Obama’s murder of bin Laden is just one example of how the U.S. has thumbed its nose at other countries, compounding the difficulty.
I forgot one very important issue. The mainstream media are controlled by moneyed interests. Not only are millions SPENT to advertise the view of reactionary politicians, but millions are PAID to MSM sources that act in accordance with how they make their profits. We need a strong source of news that gets not only the facts, but also the priorities, straight.
All in all, this list is a pretty good match with my concerns, with but two exceptions:
#1: Put politicians in charge of the Federal Reserve? We might as well start handing out loaded guns and poisoned candy to babies. I can think of no compelling reason why politicians should set interest rates, and lots of reasons why they shouldn’t (mainly, because rates would then always be near zero, where plutocrats like ‘em, and business cycles would then swing back and forth wildly out of control.
#2: One of my deepest concerns is missing from this list: preventing a Republican from winning the election. This one is a deal-killer with respect to me voting for Anderson (or any other minor candidate).
I have an open mind about the Federal Reserve. At this point, I give the benefit of the doubt to Anderson because the Fed seems to be a part of the overall system that’s causing the increasing disparity between the 1% and the 99%. I want to learn more about Anderson’s thinking on this.
The reason third party or non-party candidates lose is that the majority of people dissatisfied with how things are think they have to choose the lesser of two evils rather than clear the way for the greater of two evils. But this time, the two evils are more evil than in the past, and are just about equally bad (many progressives actually think Obama is worse than the Republicans, because they at least advertise their idiotic policies in advance, whereas Obama dissembled). I refuse, period, to vote for anyone who would assassinate people on mere suspicion, without any due process, and would hold people, again on mere suspicion, indefinitely without trial. His jokes about drones he would deploy to protect his daughters, and his comment about the fact that Private Manning (no relation) was being tortured because he was such a bad criminal or traitor, are enough in themselves to convince me to abandon the lesser of two evils rationale.
It’s weird that the nomeclature for a member of the Justice Party is a Justicrat.
On the donation page:
$500 Lifetime Justicrat
$100 Founding Justicrat
$25 Upwardly-Mobile Justicrat
$10 Key Justicrat
https://fundly.com/donate/BG2ndRU17g
Note, that’s the party page and not his individual campaign page below!
https://voterocky.nationbuilder.com/donate
Buddy Roemer style self limting to $100!
Charles Manning:
Blacks, hispanics, Native Americans and anyone who doesn’t make at least a quarter million a year are all second class citizens and we need to change that with a re-calibration of value for labor (not based on China or Mexico, but HERE where we have to LIVE); get the money out of politics and nationalize the oil companies. (for starters)
It’s noteworthy to me that the Federal Reserve is the item with the least support. Some people are obsessed with it, as if the Fed is the central issue around which all other issues revolve. They have not, it seems, done a good job of communicating their ideas.
Four voters have not selected “Dismantle systems of political corruption in the USA” or “Decrease the political influence of the military-industrial complex”.
Any explanations for why that would be so?
I was initially wary of “a more just tax structure”, because that’s usually an euphemism for “flat tax.” But here’s what Rocky’s web site says:
“An Anderson administration will recognize that since money has a diminishing marginal utility, and since the wealthy are more capable of investing more in the country that has afforded them extraordinary opportunities, higher tax rates on people earning more money is fair and moral. This includes the capital gains tax.”
So, he means a fair tax plan as liberalese for even more tax profressivity rather than an actual fair tax plan? I thought it was weird a progressive was for fair taxation.
Someone who supports actual fairness rahter than rhetoric is Gary Johnson.
http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/issues/economy-and-taxes