I put a big burden on citizens. To my mind, to merit the honorific of "citizen" with regard to elections, one is required not merely to cast a ballot (which sounds so passive), but to become educated about the candidates and their issues, to care about the outcome, and if finding an important contest and a worthy candidate, to commit to the the victory of the best candidate.
Like I said, I put a big burden on those whom I honor as "citizens."
But that may be an excessively high standard for the title of citizen. Because, it seems to me today, that the price of such commitment is to have one's heart broken.
In 1960, in the 6th grade, I gave a speech to the elementary school 4th, 5th and 6th graders on behalf of John F. Kennedy. Of course, like most citizens my heart was broken by Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1964, in the 10th grade, I had put "LBJ for the USA" bumper stickers on the family cars, and went to the "LBJ for the USA" election eve rally in Madison Square Garden, head lined by Gregory Peck. By 1967, Lyndon had broken my heart and I campaigned in 1968 for Gene McCarthy in the Pennsylvania primary. That summer I was Putnam County youth coordinator for McCarthy until the convention. I did nothing for Hubert Humphrey.
Later I supported Jimmy Carter, and still later, Bill Clinton, but both were heart breakers in their own ways.
And now, Barack Obama, yet another heart-breaker.
In March 2009, two months in office when he held his "virtual" town hall meeting, the most widely endorsed questions were about marijuana legalization. He was asked about the potential benefits to the economy of legalizing the multi-billion marijuana industry. I was shocked at his unnecessary smirking and contemptuous response ("I don't know what this says about the online audience, but ...") which, of course, failed to indicate that he had even thought about the number of jobs, the tax revenue, or the savings in government expenditures. No sense that he was even curious to actually look at the numbers.
In August 2011, he was asked at a town hall meeting in Minnesota about medical marijuana. His stumbling response as reported by Raw Story:
What the hell? What is "that"? Could it be that he is fundamentally ignorant of how any of the medical marijuana programs operate? Is he, the former professor of constitutional law, unwilling to discuss with the people his view of the Constitution's Supremacy Clause in Article V or the extent of Congress's power under the commerce clause in Article I?“If you can’t legalize marijuana, why can’t you just legalize medical marijuana?” a woman asked the president.
“A lot of states are making decisions about medical marijuana,” Obama explained. “As a controlled substance, the issue is then that is it being prescribed by a doctor as opposed to… you know, well, I’ll leave it at that.”
And now, in October 2011, Obama is unleashing the U.S. Justice Department on the medical marijuana dispensaries of California. His U.S. Attorneys held a press conference announcing they are going after the dispensaries.
Were the federal prosecutors accompanied by mayors from around the state insisting their police have been hapless in controlling their towns' doctors and medical marijuana patients? No.
Has the California Governor or Attorney General called for salvation from Washington to stem some kind of medical marijuana dispensary crisis? No.
This is a blatant act of federal intervention in state and local law?
What is behind this? Does the Obama Administration think this threatened "crackdown" will improve our relations with the Mexican government? Do they think they are "signalling" that the U.S. is doing something constructive to reduce U.S. demand for marijuana from Mexico? If so, that's absurd.
I think that the DEA, and cops who hate losing elections, and hate giving up the easy overtime pay that accompanies easy marijuana arrests, have pressured the prosecutors to act. The Attorney General, politically weak from the start, and never highly regarded for his brains (think about how he got rolled approving Clinton's last minute pardon of fugitive Marc Rich), and now deep in a political foxhole regarding the "Fast and Furious" gun scandal, is simply not in control of his department. The Justice Department is not being driven by its ostensible leader, but by the career prosecutors, politically ambitious and hungrdy for headlines (think Rudy Giuliani, former federal prosecutor in Manhattan in New York, eyeing the mayor's office and the White House).
Obama seems to hold so many people in contempt, and now it is clear this includes his own supporters. Perhaps he has looked at the Republican field and concluded that the citizens who supported him in 2008 won't abandon him in November 2012.
Just how out of touch with reality is he, or is his staff? In November 1996 in California, Proposition 215 for medical marijuana was on the ballot, along with Bill Clinton, running for re-election, and Bob Dole. Medical marijuana received ONE MILLION more votes than Bill Clinton did, as he carried California. Since then voters and legislators have passed such laws in 15 states!
But I fear that, at his electoral peril, he sadly underestimates the disgust that millions of his former supporters now have for him.
We probably won't vote for Perry or Romney, but millions of won't vote for Obama! We'll go to the polls, and we'll vote for Senators, Representatives, and other "down ballot" positions. For president, perhaps, we'll write in our own name, or perhaps, Gary Johnson, or Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet of TV's West Wing.
Yes, this will probably elect the Republican. But how can we vote for Obama and maintain our self-respect?
