Obama Loses His "Cool"

[Galaxy]

Obama Loses His "Cool"
On the issue of marijuana legalization, Obama supporters are learning that the president differs little with the past few administrations.
By Matt Welch
May 28, 2009

When the generation of Americans under the age of 30 gets around to realizing that our nation's handsome young president might not be nearly as cool as they had hoped, it won't be hard to affix a date on when the milk began to sour. It was March 26, 2009, when Barack Obama conducted a live town hall press conference featuring questions submitted online.

Near the beginning of this hip and mildly groundbreaking interaction, the president said: "We took votes about which questions were gonna be asked. . . . 3.5 million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, uh, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve, uh, the economy and job creation. And, uh [chuckles], uh, I don't know what this says about the online audience [laughs], but I just wantâ??I don't want people to think thatâ??this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. Uh, the answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."


Party membership and voting are frequently more about group identity than philosophical orientation about the proper role of government.
The live audience laughed and applauded. The kids online? Not so much.

"Way to discredit a lot of the 'online audience' who got you elected, Mr. President," wrote one commenter on the social news aggregating website Digg.com, where Obama's dismissal was heavily criticized. "Enjoy your approval rating now, Mr. President, I think you just lost a bunch of help," wrote another. A third Diggster treated legalization with a seriousness (if not grammaticalness) that Obama failed to muster: "To me this is justa common sense issue, legalize Marijuana, decriminalize drug use, thereby crippling drug lords, creating a safe and in the open means to distribute cannabis, give the economy a shot in the arm, and propel snack food sales through the roof. I know the man has a lot on his plate, but seriously this is not justa pot head issue. and it ain't cute that folks are rotting in prisons for cultivating and smoking a ***** plant."

No, it ain't cute at all.

Scratch a young Obama voter and you won't necessarily find someone who likes bailouts or cares about financial market regulations one way or another. Instead, you're likely to hear about how the awful Republicans wage wars, bait gays and racial minorities, and basically act like a bunch of mean old white men. Party membership and voting are frequently more about group identity than philosophical orientation about the proper role of government. There is little doubt about the broad mores of Generation Obama: pro-choice, pro-gay, and pro-legalization. Obama has the first one covered, but his youngest supporters are finding out quickly that on the latter two the president is not offering substantive "change" from the past few administrations.

Freedom works in chaotic, unpredictable ways. Sometimes you can go for decades without an inch of progress; then, the next thing you know, the whole architecture of oppression gets swept away within a matter of days. At a recent screening in Washington, D.C., for the new documentary about the Velvet Revolution, The Power of the Powerless, an American activist type asked the former Czech student leader Simon Pánek how much behind-the-scenes logistical groundwork and drawn-out planning his fellow revolutionaries engaged in before the 10 days in November of 1989 that overthrew the Communist Party. Pánek laughed. "Oh, no," he said. "It all happened so fast, you cannot plan for such a thing."

Marijuana legalization isn't happening remotely that fast, but there are some preliminary indicators that something new and hopeful is stirring within the populace in 2009. It started in late January, when photos surfaced of record-shattering Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps smoking a bong at a party. As a nation prepared for the usual round of hypocritical and self-righteous denunciations, something stranger happened: nothing. The country's sports pages, normally not known for their permissive attitudes about what humans put in their bodies, greeted the news of a 23-year-old acting like a 23-year-old with a collective shrug.

Ostensibly conservative corporate America, at least in the form of Phelps' many sponsors, almost unanimously stood by their man. The one company that did not, cereal maker Kellogg, found itself the target of a boycott, and its spokespeople spent February loudly (and not very convincingly) claiming that the two sides' parting of the ways was a simple matter of a contract expiring. "Our marijuana laws have been ludicrous for as long as we've been alive," conservative columnist Kathleen Parker wrote in the Washington Post. "The problem isn't Phelps, who is, in fact, an adult. The problem is our lawsâ??and our lies."

Aside from the shattered lives of those caught either in the drug war or in the dangerous black market that prohibition produces, the lies are what make marijuana criminalization so infuriating. For decades we have allowed billions of our tax dollars to be spent on propaganda telling us, falsely, that pot is "dangerous," that winners don't do drugs, and that recreational drug users finance terrorism. Barack Obama is the living refutation of all of that: Not only did he inhale, he freely admitted that "that was the point." Yet countless federal agencies still require either marijuana-free pasts or (more likely) skilled lying about it. This at a time when more than half of Americans born after World War II have tried pot at least once.

Forcing people to lie, even a little bit, is one of the single most corrosive things a government can do. That's the bad news. The good news is that this model is ultimately unsustainable, for the simple reason that people would rather tell the truth. At Andrew Sullivan's blog in March and April, readers sent in dozens of testimonials explaining that they are perfectly upstanding members of society yet have broken the nation's marijuana laws multiple times in the past and are now tentatively "coming out of the closet" about it. Though it's another sign that the architecture of lies is finally showing the first signs of collapse, the act is nonetheless kind of pathetic. What kind of fearful, groveling supplicants have we become after four decades of abuse?

That's why Obama's pot answer, and the immediately hostile reaction to it by his core fan base, was so interesting. The president has done some good things in office, most notably giving word to the Drug Enforcement Administration that it is no longer to conduct raids on medical marijuana clubs in states where they are legal. Though there still have been a couple of raids during the transition period, the new policy presents a marked change from the past. But considering that this is about as far as Obama appears willing to go, events and public sentiment may soon overtake him.

In moments of liberation, leaders who seemed so progressive during times of stagnation suddenly appear archaic, even obstructionist. Mikhail Gorbachev was far more liberal than the communist leaders of East Germany and several other Soviet satellites, yet the revolutionaries there who rammed through the opening he helped create nonetheless tended to hate his guts. He was, after all, still an authoritarian communist. By demonstrating that some winners do use drugs, and by allowing cannabis clubs to show the world that pot buyers and sellers are as American as apple pie, Obama is perhaps unwittingly helping to unleash a long-overdue correction in the way America lies to itself. Taking advantage of that window of opportunity might not be a good strategy for growing the economy, but it's an excellent way to begin regrowing our spines. &

Matt Welch, an assistant editor of the Los Angeles Times editorial page, is the author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick.

Galaxy Reviewed by Galaxy on 05-31-2009. Obama Loses His "Cool" Obama Loses His "Cool" On the issue of marijuana legalization, Obama supporters are learning that the president differs little with the past few administrations. By Matt Welch May 28, 2009 When the generation of Americans under the age of 30 gets around to realizing that our nation's handsome young president might not be nearly as cool as they had hoped, it won't be hard to affix a date on when the milk began to sour. It was March 26, 2009, when Barack Obama conducted a live town hall Rating: 5

[the image reaper]

well, some of us tried to warn, but it all fell on deaf ears ... all the KoolAid drinkers could see, was 'the rockstar running for President' :wtf: ...

... POLITICS 101: when encountering a politician, " if his lips are moving, he is lying " ... and, unfortunately, 3rd parties are not the solution ... doesn't matter how honest you are, ya can't fix shit, if ya can't WIN ... :smokin:

[gypski]

Too bad Barry doesn't have the spine to admit his youthful convictions of inhaling frequently actually caused no harm. Look at where he is. Or you've been fooled again. :jointsmile:

[Gatekeeper777]

The dude that plays UMAr in harold and kumar escape guentanomo bay is the OFFICIAL white house LIASON to hollywood, at the end of the movie they show him sparking up 2 fatties in amsterdam!
HOW CAN THEY DENY IT>
HE ADMITS IT AND THEY GOT IT ON FILM! Let em deny it!

[the image reaper]

I read a news blurb about Kumar/Obama, the day after the appointment ... a White House spokesman said it was doubtful Obama had seen the movie, or was aware of the theme ... doesn't know shit about the guy, but appoints him to a position ... and, I saw the Easter bunny today ...

[EnhAnceD]

and, I saw the Easter bunny today ...

LOL. Thats funny. It would make soooo much money by doing this, but still I would rather fly under the radar and pay what I pay, b.c I cant imagin it being any cheeper if the Gov controlled it. Its a sticky situation:jointsmile:

[overgrowthegovt]

Politicians...all the same. As soon as the hero-worship started I had my deep suspicions. He's still a healthier alternative to McCain, though, or any Republican...mmm, I could use some KoolAid right about now, along with some Aldous Huxley. Maybe a little Grateful Dead, too (some live shit).

[killerweed420]

Seems my post was deleted for some reason.lol So here it is again. He looks pretty cool to me.lol

[jeepboi]

well, some of us tried to warn, but it all fell on deaf ears ... all the KoolAid drinkers could see, was 'the rockstar running for President' :wtf: ...

... POLITICS 101: when encountering a politician, " if his lips are moving, he is lying " ... and, unfortunately, 3rd parties are not the solution ... doesn't matter how honest you are, ya can't fix shit, if ya can't WIN ... :smokin:

True True They are still wearing the shirts of the RockStar, WHILE smoking a J in front of the Cinema Complex i was at.

[Gatekeeper777]

Altho he prolly would like to leagalize now that he is the puppet president his real handelers won't let him cause it makes them money. So since he and every other president since McKinnly were owned by the supra elite class there will be no nationwide leagalization without a huge fight or compramise.