Justice for the 99%: A new political party for the rest of us

A new political party that serves the public interest is now in the process of qualifying for ballot access in time for the 2012 election ~ the Justice Party. One of their candidates for the Presidential nomination is none other than Rocky Anderson, the beloved ex-mayor of Salt Lake City whose pristine record of fighting for human rights, social ethics and political accountability leaves no doubt about his sincerity when he declares that the Justice Party will serve the public interest.

The public interest has completely disappeared not only from Supreme Court rulings, White House policies, Congressional and State legislation but from national political discourse, as if there is no longer any such thing as the public interest. As the Constitution and social programs are being systematically dismantled, everything that belongs to the public is being sold to private individuals and corporations ~ education, health care, postal service, national parks, infrastructure, even military functions, intelligence and surveillance.

Today 400 people in the US own more than the combined assets of 150 million Americans. A tiny percentage of extremely wealthy individuals control the government, media and every critical institution to perpetuate their own self-interest to the detriment of society.  This antisocial minority has secured for itself ridiculously low taxes and taxpayer-financed subsidies and bailouts by controlling politicians with bribes (campaign contributions) and an army of lobbyists. With a few notable exceptions, lawmakers suffer from a pathological ETHICS deficit far more serious than the budget deficit. In fact, the two deficits are directly related to each other. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy, multi-trillion dollar wars of aggression and Wall Street bailouts created the budget deficit.  

What is most insidious about this exaggerated concentration of wealth, (facilitated by Congress), is that this wealth is used to deprive the vast majority of Americans of their Constitutional right to political representation. Only the ultra-wealthy have had representation ~ until now.

Preliminary discussions about the Justice Party platform included such luminaries as Rocky Anderson, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Nancy Marcus Newman, Linda Yahr, Jerry Peloquin, Cletus Zeitz, and Paul Zeitz. They agreed on 8 core principles:

1. Tax the rich and corporations;

2. End the wars; bring the troops home; cut military spending;

3. Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all;

4. End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests;

5. Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation;

6. Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages;

7. Get money out of politics;

8. Improved health access and quality for all.

The Justice Party platform is still evolving and YOU can shape the agenda by joining the discussion at: http://americanidea.justicepartyusa.net. One thing is certain: this Party is not selling out to corporate interests. Campaign donations are limited to $100 per election cycle.

On economic and fiscal policy: Rocky Anderson supports increased tax on investment income; immediately ending the Bush tax cuts; cutting defense spending significantly; offering tax incentives to firms who hire US workers and disincentives to those that don't; splitting up too big to fail banks; and he opposes hiring ex-financial executives as advisors to the president on economic policy.

What a glorious difference Rocky Anderson would make in the White House in contrast to the current array of antisocial contenders including the Wall Street lackey masquerading as a Democrat. As Glen Greenwald so succinctly put it:

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