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SALT LAKE CITY — One of Utah's most liberal politicians has divorced himself from the Democratic Party.
In a harshly worded email, former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson this week asked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to remove his name from its list.
"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," he wrote.
Anderson, executive director of High Road for Human Rights, listed several issues on which he believes Democrats have failed to "stand strong" as the party espouses.
Anderson wrote that he wants no part of the Democratic Party until it "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."
"How dare you send an email with the subject line 'Standing strong,'" he wrote. "You didn't do it on Iraq; you didn't do it on torture; you didn't do it on signing statements; you haven't done it on Afghanistan; you haven't done it on defense spending; you haven't done it on real health care reform; you haven't done it on energy policy and the climate crisis; you haven't done it on the evisceration of our system of checks and balances through the invocation of the state secrets doctrine; and you haven't done it on the debt ceiling fiasco."
Anderson wrote that he wants no part of the Democratic Party until it "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."
He says he can count on one hand those who have stood strong in Congress, "and they have faced nothing but opposition by Nancy Pelosi and most of the rest of the so-called Democrats."
A good chunk of the letter deals with what he sees as the party ignoring torture and war crimes at the highest level of government.
"The Constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper," he wrote. "It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party."
Email:dromboy@ksl.com
