Snoop Dogg, one of the many entertainers with ties to the marijuana industry, checks out a glass gun-pipe during a visit to Clear Choice Cannabis in Tacoma, Washington.
Anyone who’s been following the news since the tragic school shooting in Florida has seen how utterly powerless and spineless our politicians can be. Regardless of your own personal feelings about guns, the polls in this country have consistently shown that a majority of Americans want stricter controls on assault weapons. Period. In other words, it’s the “will of the people,” and yet nothing changes.
Like a lot of citizens of this country, I’ve started to feel more and more that what the majority of the people want has nothing to do with what we actually get. Public policy across a wide range of issues does not reflect the preference of most Americans. If it did, the country would look quite different: marijuana would be legal; campaign money would be more tightly regulated; paid parental leave would be offered in all states; public colleges would be free; the minimum wage would be higher; guns would be more closely regulated; abortions would be more accessible for women; and we’d have stricter regulations on keeping air and water clean.
The sad fact is that we’d like to think we live in a democracy, but we really don’t, at least not when it comes to the desires of the majority. Money now rules U.S. politics more than ever before, and elected officials hide behind the guise of doing the work of the people, when in reality they are working against what the people want and for corporate profits.
And if that’s not bad enough, we now have to put up with a president who lost the election by 3 million votes, but managed to get into office because of an arcane system called the Electoral College. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but readily admit that I saw him as a lesser evil than some of the other Republican presidential candidates supported by wacky Tea Party voters who barely hid their racism and contempt for cherished ideals like the separation of church and state. I was wrong. Trump is a dangerous bully who violates democratic ideals and the will of the people on a daily basis. And he barely hides his racism and contempt for cherished ideals.
As I write this, Trump is mired in a scandal with a porn star that may have been paid off by campaign donations, which is a serious crime. At the same time, the rest of the hand-picked “best people” in his cabinet are doing exactly as predicted by those with some insight into politics: They’re failing miserably and getting caught doing the exact things Trump promised he’d clean up. Finally, Rex Tillerson just got fired as Secretary of State, adding to a long list of people who either quit, left in scandal, or got fired because they refused to kowtow to a wannabe king. (Remember that Tillerson had allegedly called Trump a “moron.”)
We can change all of this. Get out and vote this fall.
Support moderates who don’t have huge obvious conflicts of interest — like pretty much everyone in the Trump White House — and support more women and young candidates. We need change like never before. If a bunch of dedicated high school kids in Florida can effect change and move the needle on gun control, then pro-cannabis, pro-woman, pro-environment, pro-science voters can do the same thing.
Logic and the will of the people may not be the order of the day right now, but we can get back to a place that more closely resembles a democracy if enough people get fired up!
Greg James
Publisher