I have to say about the Democratic Party? I'm ashamed, really, of how little leadership there has been. There has been just tremendous timidity on the part of the party, generally, although there have been a handful of exceptions. But, you know, we had one member of the United States Senate vote against the PATRIOT Act, the blank check that was given by Congress to this president, I think in total abrogation of the role of Congress under separation of powers and under the power to make war, to declare war. They gave that away to a president that didn't have his facts straight and, I think, was manipulating the intelligence to sell this war. Anderson researched, wrote, produced, and narrated a major multimedia piece concerning the invasion and occupation of Iraq, as well as the case for impeachment. Human rights advocacy After almost eight years as mayor of Salt Lake City, Anderson decided that he would not run for re-election, and that he would instead devote himself to educating, motivating, and mobilizing people to push elected officials and others to take action to prevent or stop major human rights abuses.Anderson has stressed the importance of people at the grassroots level advocating for progressive change, stating, "We keep expecting elected officials will do the right thing, and the fact is they never do unless they're pushed." In January 2008 he founded High Road for Human Rights, a non-profit organization set up to achieve major reforms of US human rights policies and practices through unique, coordinated and sustained grassroots activism that complements the work of other human rights organizations. The principle that underpined the organization is that most politicians will do nothing unless they are pushed. High Road was a bottom-up, grassroots-based organization founded "to make it clear there will be short-term political costs for those who continue to ignore these kinds of problems ... Every time a congressperson or senator comes home and hold a meeting, there [should be] a group there pushing on the same issues", according to Anderson. High Road had a growing membership base and active local teams of people who met and worked together to bring about change. The organization had a broad-based membership, with an Advisory Committee composed of prominent human-rights, environmental and political activists, as well as artists, actors, and writers, including Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, Lester Brown, Hillary Brown, Ben Cohen, Daniel Ellsberg,