US media wouldn’t focus on your message until you’re able to demonstrate that you had the kind of support that merited their attention, said Rocky Anderson, former US presidential candidate.
RT: Could you tell us a bit more about your experience running as a third-party candidate?
Rocky Anderson: When we got media coverage, we got a lot of support, because we had a message very much like Bernie Sanders message. We talked about a political revolution; we talked about the corrupting influence of money in our system; we talked about breaking up the banks that are too large to fail, and holding those who created economic disaster – not only in our country, but around the world – accountable for their illegal conduct. None of that has been done. And people should not be forgetting this.
The problem was when I was running in 2012, the media, of course, wouldn’t focus on you – it is sort of a Catch 22 – they wouldn’t focus on your message until you’re able to demonstrate that you had the kind of support that merited their attention. And we see the same thing with the presidential debate now. Presidential Debate Commission, which was formed by the Republican and Democratic parties – they did it so that they can keep everybody else off the stage. Like last time around in 2012, the two parties’ candidates on so many issues, especially having to do with our economy and with our foreign relations, sounded pretty much like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. There wasn’t much difference that you could tell between them. And that is not a service to the American people and it certainly isn’t democratic.