Smoking my Liberty

Lets talk about liberty for a moment. And before anyone starts in on Ron Paul or some Libertarian claptrap about the inherent evils of Government, I’m going to ask that we direct our attention to our prisons. According to NORML the United States has arrested and imprisoned twenty million people since 1937 for marijuana, as of the 2008 election season.

According to their stats, over 99.6 marijuana arrests are made every hour by federal, state and local authorities in their endless and futile “war on drugs.” And for those of you hoping for the change that our dear President/Sell-out in Chief (who has admitted to smoking pot and despite it, is still President) promised in regards to this fundamental corruption of law, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Gil Kerlikowske, the new White House Drug Czar has already made it clear that “decriminalization” is not in his vocabulary. Though he’s called for an end to the war on drugs, a close examination of his statement and position shows that he appears to favor a rebranding of the war, rather than an outright end.

Why could this be though? A quick Google search of Kerlikowske shows an interesting history in terms of his past relationship with the Seattle police and public in general. Already having having a no-confidence vote against him and an investigation regarding his interference with internal departmental investigations, we really need to wonder who Obama has placed in charge of this, one of our most expensive national endeavors. Then again, given the hordes of other interested parties, its no wonder that the machine seems primed to keep chugging along.

With a majority of prisons and jails in the US actually being privately owned by prison corporations, its an easy leap to assume that the prison industry itself has a vested interest in the continuation of record setting incarcerations. And with the hardcore authoritarians in the law enforcement and legislative community who simply love mix the words freedom and values into discussions about needless social controls, it should be no curious matter as to why the development and influence of our prison industrial complex continues to grow, even in this our time of “newer, smarter government.”

Now many may accuse me of having a bias as I regularly enjoy marijuana whenever possible, however is it not fair to say that my bias is one in the interest of my own liberty, while those against me are set to maintain either ideological traditionalism or outright profit? Forgetting for a moment the hardline law and order hawks, one must consider the pharmaceutical industry. With billions of dollars being made from everything from pain medications and anti-depressants to sleep aids and anti-anxiety drugs, is anyone so blind as to not recognize that this billion dollar industry with its countless lobbyists and endless influence, might just be feeding the anti-marijuana efforts in Washington? I certainly hope not, for if they are, I’d say the should stop taking so many of those drugs and come back to Earth for some raw common sense.

So what can be done? With every effort or statement made against the growing and frighteningly militant police state being shot down with a slogan about being “soft on crime” (or some variation thereof,) it would seem that the majority of public opinion is supposedly on our side and the mass appeal of decriminalization or legalization of marijuana is almost universally ground beneath the wheels of the “law and order” authoritarian moralist set. Add to this the plethora of other pressing issues, and those which are not so pressing but championed by those obnoxious enough to be heard, and it would seem that the issue of drug law reform, specifically regarding marijuana is bound to remain on the back burner (or possibly even in the freezer awaiting defrosting.)

The need for drug policy reform is, in my opinion, one of the most pressing issues facing the United States. We are home to around five percent of the global population, yet our laws and our justice system currently incarcerate over one quarter of the world’s convicts. The effects of an overreaching law enforcement and prison-industrial complex present the United States with a question of civil liberties which strikes at the very core of our national identity.

As there has never been a solid Constitutional authority which allows the Government to regulate what an individual may consume privately, the ideological and industrial interests who have come to benefit from the blanket prohibition of drugs and marijuana demand an intelligent and aggressive opposition. But where is it?

With groups like NORML and the MPP having stepped off from outright legalization in favor of the easier and more publicly palatable measure of medical marijuana, we find our champions sorely lacking in this area. And with almost all celebrity and political support being sidelined by the opposition as either cliche’ stoners or outright wack-jobs, we find the increasingly pressing matter of reclaiming our liberty sidelined as well.

Even if one doesn’t smoke marijuana, the arguments regarding the legal status of alcohol and tobacco versus marijuana and their detriments to public health and safety are abundantly evident and too logical to discount. It is time then friends, to take a real and comprehensive look at ourselves and our laws. We can shed blood to spread freedom and democracy across the globe, yet where is the fight for it here at home?

I remain waiting friends, for the time when we can say as one that we will not tolerate the restriction of our freedom to do with our bodies as we please. I remain waiting for the silly partisan divisions to fall away, even if just for a moment, so that we may recognize that “freedom” and “liberty” are not just about getting McDonalds and Starbucks into foreign countries and holding showpiece elections, but actually still mean something here at home. I’m waiting friends and I’ll be here waiting until you are ready to join me in this fight.

A Coyote in the Chicken Coup

Would you ask a vegetarian the best way to cook a steak? Of course not. Would you leave a coyote in charge of a chicken coup? No…thats just stupid. But why then, with this pattern of logic being so obvious, do we continually trust wealthy pedigree elites to watch out for the common man?

Be it our elected officials or the champions of social issue PACs, the leadership in almost every case is generally comprised of wealthy, well to do elites who having generally had their way paid for them by a generous benefactor (usually mom and/or dad) haven’t a leg to stand on in terms of sympathizing or empathizing with the middle or lower classes. In every election season (especially this one) the sloganeers and marketing specialists of political campaigns go to great lengths to paint a divisive “Wall Street versus Main Street” picture for the public in an effort to bring about the appearance that they truly understand the plight of the working class, yet despite the apparent victories for the champions of the common man it seems that the plight of real people is conveniently forgotten once the polls have closed. And then, with a stupendous hurrah the status quo is preserved for yet another term, with yet another perfect smiling face carrying on the same game as the one who came before.

So why do we continue to look to the rich to take care of the poor? Certainly it isn’t their track record. Despite their supposed “best efforts” we still find ourselves in the midst of an economic depression, where the hard working and honest Americans are finding basic survival more and more difficult, while those at the top continue to reap the benefits of our labors, even when their stewardship and leadership is shown to be sorely lacking. Our cost of living continues to rise as wages remain stagnate and for every measure taken by Government to supposedly help those in need, two steps are taken against it in the endless compromises and back scratching that our elected officials engage in with narrow minded ideological and industrial interests.

We find our health care continually laid upon the altar of profiteering industries with the only suggestions for reform being a Government corporatization scheme wherein they become yet another insurance company who can bleed us dry for limited assistance. We find trillions of dollars being borrowed against our taxed labors and blindly thrown at the failing industries and banks who through poor stewardship and shortsighted profiteering, have brought this once mighty economic powerhouse to it’s knees. And despite all the promises made, we still find countless pervasive inequities both financially and legally which reward the crooked and punish the upright.

In this the “greatest country in the history of the world,” we still have malnourishment, homelessness and skyrocketing unemployment. Average Americans need to work two, sometimes three jobs just to get by, all the while being told by those in power, that they’re fighting to lighten to the load. Yet at the same time, we also continue to host some of the most wealthy individuals and trillion dollar industries all of whom still thrive from the desperate labors of those beneath them, while throwing meager wages and limited benefits like scraps from their tables to beggars in the streets.

And through all of this, the economic, legal and political inequities, through it all, once the votes have been cast and the offices attained, we have only the PAC and advocacy groups to look to when seeking a real voice. Yet even these are beset by the clubhouse mentality of the wealthy and pedigreed. With wided eyed idealism, they file into their partisan lines and follow the leader whenever possible, ignoring the true facts of what needs to be done and instead taking ques from the sellouts they whole-heartedly support. With staff comprised of other ignorant elites, they too set out to “help the common man” all the while, not even realizing they know little to nothing about the problems they seek to address.

So why then, do we the real Americans, seek leadership from those who know nothing beyond classroom academia when it comes to real political reform? Why do we tolerate the same old club of insiders who have shown time and time again to be clueless about what suffering and struggle is like while having thrived solely from the efforts and labor of others? Why do we expect real change when we continue to keep these coyotes in our chicken coups? And why has it taken this long to do anything about it?

The Death of American Liberalism

Liberalism is on the march! Or is it? With the election of Barack Obama and the Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress in 2008, I found myself feeling momentarily optimistic about the future of this country. I found in myself a hope that things very could actually improve and that the mistakes and disasters that the previous government had brought upon us could be undone or at least effectively managed. Yet this moment was short lived, as the hopes I had held for real change were  soon replaced with the troubling question; what happened to American Liberalism?

Well, to be honest, its not much to wonder about, especially when the modern equivalent of liberalism is examined for what it is. Recently, the word “liberal” has existed almost solely on the lips and minds of the conservative right, who having lost in terms of electoral power, still retain significant political leverage in that their opposition seems hell bent on pandering to them. I’m speaking of course of the modern “progressive” political mindset.

Never before has such a detrimental compromise been made in terms of American philosophical or political division. Now whereas the term “compromise” generally entails a certain meeting of the minds, the Progressive version of compromise is not one of meeting half way, but one of caving in the face of stiff opposition at every turn, while keeping the appearance of disagreement bubbling softly on the surface. Where once there was an opposition which stood boldly in the face of ideals which were counterproductive to social good, we now find ourselves beset by a weak and timid club of insiders, all of whom are generally more interested in self promotion than standing for real principles.

This is most evident in the very adoption of the new label itself. Once upon a time there were two sides to this coin. Liberal and Conservative. Yet now, due largely to the left’s acceptance of right wing criticisms and a complete lack of backbone, the term “liberal” has become a dirty word in political discourse. Likewise, the principles of equality, consideration of fact, intellectual honesty and a devotion to open and effective government have all but left and in turn, have been replaced it seems with those of political expediency, interest and industry pandering and an inability to stand up and say to the opposition that they are simply wrong.

What happened to the debate? Where is the opposition? Whereas the right, to their credit, will never hesitate to fight over matters they feel strongly on, the left seems to be intentionally lacking in champions of cause. But is this due to a lack of intelligent, forceful voices, or could it be that the left has given into the lures of political marketing to such a degree that polls override principle?

While working for a DNC friendly PAC organization a while back, I, in the course of conversation with one of the senior staff, made the mistake of using the term “liberal” to describe what I presumed to be our side. No sooner had the word left my mouth than a direct and intentional correction spilled from the lips of the staffer. “No, not liberal. We’re Progressive,” he said, with as much strength as his little voice could muster.

It was here that I first came to actually consider how and why the left would fail, despite the recent victory for what I would come to consider “lipservice hope and change.” Though a desire for real change existed in one form or another in the hearts and minds of the Democratic party base, the left itself could never be capable of delivering on these ideas if the operatives and activists who promote it are too timid to stand up for a simple word. With decades of slanderous and baseless attacks on the principles of Liberalism being promoted by the conservative right, the continual lack of real pushback has created an environment where one side has given all power over the course of debate to their opposition. When the right began treating “liberal” is an insult, the liberals ended up passively agreeing with them through adoption of the new term “progressive.”

As the term itself took root, the philosophy of caving in the face of their detractors and critics became commonplace. The promises of transparency in government have seemed to have been conveniently forgotten and the apparent cult of personality that has sprung up in it’s place grants a passive permission that continues to hand all power in the argument to the minority opposition. Political expediency rules the day to such a degree that almost all classic liberal policies and positions have either been augmented to placate opposition or abandoned entirely.

With healthcare, single payer has been replaced by a pandering market solution which allows the health care industry to continue gouging the American people for a basic need. On matters of defense, no mention of the military industrial complex or the continued profiteering from global warfare is made, but instead a four percent increase in the defense industry’s blank check budget is now called a cut. And while our civil liberties are trampled upon and our prison and law enforcement industries continue incarcerating millions for crimes such as drug possession, not a single voice rises above the cacophony of legislative debate to question this, for fear of appearing “soft on crime.”

So where, I ask, is the opposition to the conservative and neo-conservative political machines? How long will Liberal ideas remain absent from popular discussion? When will the directors, presidents and chiefs of staff of supposedly leftist PAC organizations finally take their jobs seriously and stand up for the issues they claim to advocate for, rather than playing follow the leader in this, the Obama era?

I am still waiting for change. I am still looking for hope. But neither seems to be in the cards for this, our “new America.”