Bill Clinton's Remarks Show How Political Opinion Has Changed

[RainDog]

3. This issue will be like Byrd, etc.

Last edited Tue Jul 1, 2014, 02:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Byrd was a staunch segregationist when segregation was what the white, southern democratic voter wanted. when the civil rights act was passed, he had a change of heart.

by the time of the Iraq war vote, simply because he opposed it, people here wanted to send him flowers.

I'm probably not very good at politics because I could never get that earlier political stance out of my mind, though I did appreciate his stance against the Bush war policy.

He was a democrat who could take that stance with little political blowback.

It will be nice when some who have vigorously opposed medical marijuana can say "I made a mistake." It's somewhat understandable, considering the time, but really did not reflect the will of the Democratic voter, even then. Ever since CA's medical mj law passed, a majority of Americans supported the same for their states, and, by extension, federally.

But I know the bureaucracies dedicated to this 70 year old war on American people have a lot of influence in both parties.

What "amuses" me is Kevin Sabet (teamed with Patrick Kennedy and David Frum) in his statements about alcohol. He tries to dispute adding marijuana to a list of legal substances by noting that alcohol is part of American tradition (and implying that marijuana is not.)

The reality is that Jefferson left instructions to separate female and male plants - and the only reason for this is for the use of cannabis as an intoxicant. eta: I'm wrong about that statement. If Jefferson wanted to maximize seed yields, he would get rid of male plants so that the females would not compete for sunlight, nutrients, etc.

Sabet pretends that only Irish, Italian and German people have tradition related to intoxication that matters (alcohol), ignoring and erasing history, including the history of Latin Americans, and the history of people from various backgrounds throughout the early and mid-20th century (much less the era when taxes could be paid with hemp.)

Anyway, it's good to see Clinton back off of his drug warrior stances. I always thought they were sort of political calculations anyway, because he's smart enough to know marijuana use is no more harmful than alcohol.