Rocky Anderson - Criticisms of President Obama and The Democratic Party

Criticisms of President Obama and The Democratic Party

After President Obama’s election, Anderson was instantly critical of many of his policy positions and staff selections, such as Susan Rice, whom Obama appointed as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Anderson faults Ms. Rice for “doing nothing” to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as a staff member of the National Security Council. (Rice is notorious for having been more concerned with the political repercussions in the upcoming congressional election than with ending the genocide in Rwanda, when she said to NSC colleagues, "If we use the word 'genocide' and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November election?") Anderson was also critical of the appointment by Obama of John Brennan as his counter-terrorism adviser because Brennan, as a member of the George W. Bush administration, had publicly supported wiretapping, “enhanced interrogation,” and the “rendition” of war-on-terror suspects to offshore prisons beyond the reach of American law. Anderson also pointed to Obama’s complete change of position after he received the Democratic presidential nomination on the question of immunity for telecom companies that illegally cooperated with the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Deeming himself to be “non-partisan” in his critiques of policy, Anderson has subsequently gone on to fiercely criticize the Obama Administration in numerous areas, alleging that in certain respects its record is worse than that of the Bush Administration. For instance, he has stated:

“I don't know what people were expecting, all this hope and change nonsense... There's no question that we're seeing a continuation, and even in some instances a worsening of our republic under this administration. The Obama Administration has contended that no documents stamped as secret by a government agent should ever be allowed into evidence by our courts. That even goes beyond what the Bush Administration did.”

Anderson has emphasized the discrepancies between Obama's positions as a candidate for the 2008 presidency and the actions he has actually undertaken as President, asserting that “President Obama has betrayed us in almost every single way from being a candidate to being the President of the United States.” Anderson has pointed to Obama’s failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, refusing to prosecute what Anderson deems to be the “war criminals” of the Bush administration, continuing renditions, violating the War Power Clause of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution by committing military troops to Libya without congressional authorization, and continuing, and even expanding, the occupation in Afghanistan. Anderson has stated that Obama is “the least deserving recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize.” Concerning Obama's betrayal of the rule of law, Anderson has commented:

"The complacency that has allowed wars of aggression, wars of choice, we weren't forced into them, they were totally illegal wars under international law, the kinds of war crimes that took place, with people just saying, even our current president, 'Oh, let's put that behind us. Let's not call people to account. Let's not enforce our laws… “If these people had robbed the gold bullion out of a government safe, would we just say, ‘Let bygones be bygones; forget the rule of law?"

Anderson has pointedly criticized Obama for violating the Convention Against Torture, to which the US is a signatory, since every signatory to the convention is required to prosecute or extradite for prosecution those responsible for torture, which Obama refuses to do. Anderson has pointed out that when the U.S. Senate ratified the Convention Against Torture, President Ronald Reagan emphasized that the Convention requires the prosecution or extradition of anyone responsible for torture.

On August 11, 2011, major news media in Utah reported that Anderson had denounced the Democratic Party and had resigned his membership of the party. Anderson wrote in a letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that "Until the Democratic Party shows some spine and draws a line in the sand -- that an end to the tax breaks for the wealthy needs to be part of any debt/budget bill -- please take my name off your list." He added that "I'm done with the Democratic Party. As I said on Amy Goodman's show a couple years ago, I've put my 'Proud Democrat' coffee mug in storage. I think now I'll just throw it in the garbage and have done with it" and that "The Constitution has been eviscerated while 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."

Anderson has stated that despite his earlier belief that the Bush Administration would be merely an “aberration” in the history of the US, “President Obama has institutionalized some of the worst abuses of the Bush Administration.”