Ross "Rocky" Anderson, a former two-term mayor of Salt Lake City and until this year a Democrat, will shortly announce a run for president of the United States as the candidate of what may be called the Justice party.
I like the way his name evokes Ross Perot, Nelson Rockefeller, and John Anderson, all of them against-the-grain fighters.
Anderson is 60. He has been active a long time and has gotten things done. Raised a Mormon, he is an independent thinker with an existentialist's vision of personal responsibility and so has been fearless and very consistent in advocating what he believes right and necessary. That embraces the convictions of the most liberal Democrats, the environmentalists, the exponents of human rights, and the Occupy Wall Street movement. He is a proven vote-getter as well as a prominent lawyer. His outspokennness has made him a minor national figure.
Getting on the ballot in all 50 states will not be easy but is not impossible.
I suppose the main question is whether Rocky has the vividness of personality and the forcefulness of mind and expression to dominate the discussion as opposed to only getting into it. Is he a protester or a leader? We will be finding out.
It appears that there will now indeed be a left alternative to the Obama regime, which Anderson has denounced as gutless and in some respects even more secretive and oppressive than the Bush one. For those of us who thought there was no chance of anything auspicious happening soon, this is heartening.
The worst possibility is that Anderson will do only well enough to elect the Republican. I would favor his offering Mr. Obama a deal whereby whichever of them was running behind the other a week before the election would withdraw and throw his backing to the other. I doubt we will see that, however.
We may now have at least the beginning of a new national politics consistent with the truly American vision of the Occupiers.
Here is what one prominent politician, who had worked with him on the Olympics, had to say about Rocky Anderson a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PQ95wokGlM&feature=related
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