Political activist and author David Swanson said in a talk at Technological Institute Tuesday that government is “broken” and corrupt.

Swanson spoke to members of the Northwestern community and the Evanston Neighbors For Peace to promote his new book and share his political views.

The author of “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union,” was invited by the Neighbors for Peace and the history department. Swanson served as Dennis Kucinich’s press secretary during his 2004 presidential campaign and wrote the introduction to “The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush,” he said.

Swanson accused the Bush administration of abusing its power and the Obama administration for continuing to expand those powers. He said Congress is corrupt and under the control of the president and party leaders.

“We’ve reached a point where there’s only two voices in Congress instead of 535,” Swanson said. “Party members will not serve the needs of their constituents if their leaders tell them not to. Our ideal should be that a representative answers the needs of its constituents first and not the president or party leadership or anyone else.”

Swanson also said the war in the Middle East was marked by legal and ethical violations by the government.

“There are a million dead bodies worth of blood on the government’s hands,” he said. “The president can massacre a village or nuke cities without limit. As long as he has the power to make war, there will be war.”

He said there are a number of ways power can be taken back from the president.”We have to expand the House of Representatives, get rid of the filibuster and put the Senate out of its misery,” Swanson said.

Karen Pallist, a member of Neighbors for Peace, said the group invited Swanson to promote discussion. Pallist, who helped organize the event, said she believed he made very good points.

“What changes Swanson proposed won’t happen tomorrow,” she said. “But making them possible is the work we have to do.”

NU history Prof. John Bushnell said he was contacted by the organization in part so they could make use of NU’s facilities. He said he felt Swanson’s ideas as presented in his book could be portrayed as contentious.

“Swanson sounded like a person with a point of view that people should hear,” Bushnell said. “Whether they agree or disagree is up to them.”

Aside from promoting his book, Swanson said he is now devoting his activism toward the punishment and disbarment of torture lawyers from the Bush administration. He said these lawyers wrote legal justifications for the administration’s torture policies, which were later proved legally unsound by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. These lawyers, known as the Bush Six, now face disbarment and charges of crimes during war. Swanson said he feels activism is a necessary part of politics for those who want to see changes made in the government.

“People are encouraged by action and activism far more than by sitting at home and complaining,” he said.[email protected]