Root Routledge, 2020 Candidate for U.S. House, Climate Insurgency

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** Root Routledge, PhD, for U.S. Congress
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** Strategic Vision for a Viable American Future
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Root Routledge, a brief 2-minute candidate talk to CD3 Delegates (2:17 min)
Key Formal Address to Colorado's CD3 Assembly Delegates Root Routledge, PhD — For April 17th, 2020, Virtual Assembly ([link removed])
(4p pdf, 10 minute read - the time alloted for a District talk) ([link removed])
War for the Future
System Failure: At this crucial time in our history, we need mature systems-oriented Representatives in Congress — and that is the core competency that Root Routledge has developed over his entire professional life. It is the principal value Root brings to this election — Primary and General — to address the system failures we are now witnessing.

Pandemic Emergency: If you didn’t know it before, you know now that we are in the midst of what I’ve been calling for years a “War for the Future.” The impacts reverberating around the World of this Coronavirus Pandemic mark this time as an unprecedented moment in world history. While this pandemic has shocked capitalist system complacency focused on short-term daily markets, it has exposed massive failures of our societal systems. Not just health, of course, but the very structure and functioning of our economic system. We are ill-prepared for this War for the Future and a political landscape that is unlike anything before.

Climate Emergency:
Our vision must be future-focused on viability for the long term, which includes building up our ability to respond rapidly and effectively to catastrophe. That includes, of course, the rapidly expanding life-threatening pandemic we are now dealing with; and future pandemics that will surely come. But even before we got hit by the demands of this pandemic, we've had before us the equally life-threatening climate crisis, which although the characteristic system response is on a longer timescale, the threat is strategic in that we are at existential risk due to the irreversible long time-lags of physical phenomena that threaten our very existence in the long run.
Root Routledge is the only Colorado's 3rd Congressional District candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, with the right background, experience and expertise to fight for our future and lead on climate and address our structural systems failures at this perilous moment in history, as a Colorado member of Congress in Washington DC.

Money in Politics and a Grassroots Run for Congress —
a note to the funding cynics:
As a side note for the funding cynics, who think the Primary candidate with the most contribution money should win — my low-budget grassroots candidacy has brought me to the same place — I am here as a viable candidate before you. My grassroots campaign is about getting big money out of politics: Keep in mind the Primary Election and General Election are entirely different ballgames. Your focus should be on who offers the best chance at turning the corner for a viable future once they get to Washington. This crucial election is not about who is a nice popular person, who has the most visibility or money; given the catastrophic system failures we are experiencing, it must be more of a needs assessment and who has the core competencies we need to address it — with the best chances of success.
Medicare For All: The sobering Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic makes it abundantly clear, even to skeptics, why we need bold systemic policies for a viable future. Healthcare must be viewed as the fundamental human right for everyone it is everywhere else. Who in America would our nation not care for as this pandemic sweeps over us? The most vulnerable? Medicare For All is the solution that is ready to go. In the House, Pramila Jayapal has sponsored HR1384 Medicare For All; the companion bill to the Bernie Sanders sponsored comprehensive Senate Medicare For All bill. Of course, I will fight for this legislation. People need to get to the doctor for medical care without having to incur any out-of-pocket expenses. Only a naïve professional politician or a corporate CEO would think everyone can simply "pay-as-you-go"; i.e. "buy-in" to ridiculous notions of "public options" for corporate designed healthcare insurance.

Green New Deal: The same goes for our climate emergency, where the Green New Deal, HRes109 in the House and the Bernie Sanders sponsored Senate version, are comprehensive systemic approaches to a just transformational future in which we can, not only repair our country; but prepare our country for the series of "shock events" we must continue to endure and address with ongoing resiliency.

Strategic Focus on Systemic Failures and Causes: If you've done your homework comparing the candidates' offerings, you would know that Root is the only candidate with a strategic focus, understanding and perspective on the existential threat of our systemic emergencies — pandemics, climate and ecosystem collapse. These are all "viable-future gateway issues". I understands the big picture and strategic threats and policies we need, which is why I wrote a 164p book, titled: Strategic Vision for a Viable American Future ([link removed]) , available in pdf form via a link on my campaign website to my eNewspaper website.

An industrial consultant for over 30 years; Root is a scientifically educated systems engineer with a PhD in Industrial Engineering (Dissertation was on Systems Safety), an MBA, and MS in Environmental and Ecological Statistics, with a deep understanding of business and industrial systems, ecosystems, climate dynamics, climate impacts and policies. Root brings a lifetime of experience addressing wide-scale complex systems problems, which is precisely what we must be dealing with — urgently! We must act now. We are out of time.

I am asking for your support, and I need your donations even in these difficult times. I ask for your vote as a delegate to your Democratic County Assembly in March and April; and to the District Assembly, which was scheduled for the evening of Friday, April 17th; but now will be some form of virtual assembly. Please read on and I think you will agree. Thanks for your support.
ActBlue — Please Dontate to Root's Campaign ([link removed])
Fully Revamped Website: RootForCitizenCongressman.org ([link removed])
Link to 2-page Flyer with active photo-image links ([link removed])


** One of "Us" is Running for U.S. Congress!
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"Not Me, Us" is the theme of Bernie Sanders' Campaign: I am one of "us" — a fixed income 73-year old Vietnam Veteran senior with grandkids, fighting for our future, for our children and grandchildren and theirs. With a deep passion, I love our Mother Earth, which we have so damaged due to unconscious neglect, over population, over harvesting, pollution, materialist greed, wars and a corrupt corporate capitalist paradigm. The sole focus of this ideology is growing more money for those who already own most of the money — the more the better, the faster the better — where, they argue, all good for society will drop out from that single myopic goal. Wrong! It never has trickled down. That is blatantly clear from the multi-trillion dollar corporate bailout money the Republicans forced into the emergency pandemic support act just passed.

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Root is running a low-budget climate insurgency campaign. On his recent Leading On Climate Tour throughout all 29 counties of Colorado's 3rd District, Root made this 1:47 minute greeting video.

ActBlue — Please Dontate to Root's Campaign ([link removed])


** What Root is About as a Candidate
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Strategic Gateway Issues First: You will know exactly where I'm headed as your Congressional Representative
* Healthy Democracy:
HR1 For the People Act - addresses election corruption
* Healthy Population:
HR1384 Medicare For All - companion bill to Bernie's Senate MFA
* Healthy Environment:
HRes 109 Green New Deal
HR763 Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act
Protect Colorado's Public Lands and Environment
Rural Revitalization and Regenerative Agriculture
* Healthy Economy:
An economy that works for everyone; living wage; free public education at all levels and eliminate student debt; investment in infrastructure and the public good.
Public Bank for public projects.

The left image above is based on my campaign name-tag stickers (if you support me, please wear them at your Caucuses and Assemblies), which is a point-by-point encapsulated summary of what I'm about, what I stand for, and where I will lead as the Representative for Colorado's 3rd Congressional District — all of Western and Southwest Colorado. We are a largely rural district with an economy based on agriculture, recreation and tourism, and the extraction industries. Parts of our district used to support good union manufacturing jobs, such as steel production; but most of that is now gone. Yet, under the comprehensive Green New Deal opportunities will abound for a new future with millions of new good-paying union jobs across our country over time.

The right image links to a guest column I wrote about the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a carbon-free economy, its impacts and opportunities, and a just transition with compassionate policies for those affected. The global temperature graph shows the relentless warming of our planet due to accelerating Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, and its interaction with loss of reflective albedo from the increasingly rapid melting and loss of ice and disintegrating ice-shelves. The past five years are the five warmest years in recorded history. That is juxtaposed with an index graph (number of miners employed) demonstrating the decline of employment in the coal-based electricity generation sector. We need to drive carbon out of the economy as fast as possible; replaced with distributed clean energy innovation and choices. Fossil fuel jobs will be going away.


** Root's Campaign
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Click on image for details.
I have been slowly and methodically rolling out my low-budget 2020 Climate Insurgency Campaign for the 117th U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Colorado’s 3rd District (CD3), since this past April, 2019; after my brief 2-month run in the last election cycle from February-April, 2018.
Let me be upfront by asking you again in this 2020 primary election cycle for your financial support ([link removed]) through campaign donations. And, for you to become a district-level “Delegate for Root ([link removed]) ” at the April 17^th CD3 District Assembly, to be held in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom 1, from 7:15-9:00 pm, in order to vote for me as your Congressional nominee. At a minimum, I need the support of delegates at your County Assemblies in order to make the 15% delegate vote threshold. Please see my website for details ([link removed]) .
ActBlue — Please Dontate to Root's Campaign ([link removed])


** Climate, Money and People
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Climate change is the greatest market failure in history ([link removed]) , and we are at the precipice of runaway heating. We are out of time. We must turn the corner now and act. That is why I'm running for Congress. We are in the fight of our lives for a viable future.

The Perils of a Corporate Capitalist Paradigm: A fraudulent lie to its core, this paradigm is a fundamental cause of the crisis we face. As Exxon and the entire fossil fuel industry has shown, it does not respond to the environmental costs it dumps onto society. We need to put a cost on carbon.

Business As Usual is Killing Us: Based on unfettered and unbounded growth, this paradigm has been perpetrated for decades by the neoliberal dogma of both Republicans and corporatist establishment Democrats, who continue to hold all the political power. It is the reason moderate centrists "status quo" Democrats, to say nothing of the far right Republicans, are not where to look for solutions. They don't understand the scale and urgency of the problem; and they have no idea how to address this strategic threat.

But, to give the people more power through democracy threatens this power structure; that's why we need the transformative movement Bernie Sanders' Presidential campaign is leading, for the people to have a say in the future of this planet. And the chickens are coming home to roost — Business As Usual (BAU) is killing us and all life on our beloved planet.
We need a systemic understanding and approach to the future on the scale, magnitude and urgency of the challenges that face us. As a scientifically educated systems engineer and industrial consultant, I have a lifetime of experience addressing system problems.

Inequality is at its Core: Inequality sucks the life out of society and the power away from the people. Money is ever more concentrated into the fewer and fewer hands of a tiny oligarchy, which we refer to as "the one-percent", but more accurately by a tiny fraction of even that (see the graphs at links to p60-65, "Income Concentration: Who's Getting the Income ([link removed]) " and "Wealth Concentration: Where does the Money Go? ([link removed]) "). Their only focus is on making more and more money — not solving society-wide problems. Market fundamentalism seems to be their only mindset. All while everyone else in society suffers austerity, and our environment and planet suffer a growing catastrophe.

Values — Money-versus-Life: An effective change requires a transformational strategic vision for a viable American future that reframes our values worldview ([link removed]) . We need to replace the “sacred money-and-markets story” with a “sacred life-and-living-Earth story”. We need to focus on strategic factors that affect the wellbeing of people, communities and society; instead of growing more money for oligarchs. Right now we have "socialism" for corporations and rich oligarchs; and the cruel brutality of "rugged capitalism" for ordinary working families. And our policies seem completely disconnected from a moral view of nature, its spiritual value, and its ecosystem services; let alone the ethics of its intrinsic natural value in its own right.
A Just Transition: I love nature and all of life. I love the younger generation, I believe in them, and I want a better future for them. We must approach this perilous future with courage, wisdom, compassion and empathy for those who will inevitably be caught in the intersectional crossroads of a transition to a carbon-free economy. We need a democracy that works; healthcare as a human right; an economy that works for everyone with fair wages and free higher education for all; and a healthy environment. Can we do this?


** The Competition
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Do your homework before you vote; compare our websites and public statements.

Republican 10-year incumbent Scott Tipton ([link removed]) is on record as a climate change denier (see my website for details). He has no idea what to do about our climate emergency, because he doesn't believe it's caused by human activity. That is his strategic weakness and he is a soft target for someone who knows about climate dynamics, climate impacts and climate policy — candidate Root Routledge.

The other two Democratic candidates are a conventional establishment politician, Diane Mitsch Bush ([link removed]) , who as the CD3 nominee in 2018 brought in $1.9 million and lost to Republican Scott Tipton by a wide margin of eight points, missing the year of the "Blue Wave" Congress. Yet, in her rerun campaign she is offering nothing new and has no significant focus or background on the climate crisis. In her video brief to delegates ([link removed]) Diane tries to position her wide loss as a "win", by the fact that she "cut Tipton's lead in half". Perhaps with more money she can cut the loss in half again, if you think that's a good bet.

And the other being a family-business corporate CEO, James Iacino ([link removed]) , who recently moved from Denver to Montrose in CD3 to run in our district, and who flies his own airplane to events around the district. James is the centrist establishment businessman candidate. Iacino also has no significant focus or background in climate or systems analysis, other than running a business. In fact, until recently you couldn't find the word "climate" anywhere on his website or his campaign materials. To his credit, in his 2-minute video to delegates ([link removed]) , James has recently brought climate up front with his support for the important effort to promote sequestering carbon in agricultural soils. This tactical policy ("...we have a plan...", James says), is actually part of the strategic comprehensive Green New Deal, and Bernie Sanders' program, "Revitalizing Rural America: Empowering Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate
Change and Protect Ecosystems" (p33 of Bernie's GND plan). Root has done his homework, and knows what's already out there ready to fight for; neither James or Diane has, judging from what they suggest and promote.

Yet, each of these establishment candidates has brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars for this Primary Election and spends it on an entourage of staff and consultants.

The Primary Election and General Election are two different games. My only needs, in this Primary Election, are for travel to get around to all of our 29 counties, and campaign material printing costs. As a low-budget grassroots campaign, I do all of it myself, including: my website and social media presence; campaign materials like flyers and ads; managing my campaign finances, schedules, contacts and travels; and quarterly FEC filings. That is how I can accomplish this with a low budget, and still be a viable candidate. I am here. Should I become the Democratic nominee, as the only Democrat in the game at that time, I will have no problem raising the grassroots money we need for the general election.

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** ActBlue — Please Dontate to Root's Campaign ([link removed])
Thanks for your interest in my campaign for
U.S. House of Representatives.

Root Routledge, Candidate, Colorado CD3

In Colorado, please be sure to participate in your County Assembly if you were elected a County Delegate at your Precinct Caucus.

But, go further. Get elected as a District Delegate to the (now to be virtual due to coronavirus) April 17th District Assembly; and vote for Root as the nominee and the best chance of turning the corner to a viable future for us all.
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