[ Posted Wednesday, October 14th, 2015 – 16:05 UTC ]
In two of the three presidential debates which have so far taken place, marijuana legal reform has been brought up in a serious way. Right there, that's a mark of respect for marijuana reform that has simply never previously existed at this level in our nation's political debate. The concept that the federal "War On Weed" needs to end is now about as mainstream as it gets, and after the people have led so admirably on the issue in the past decade, the politicians are finally deciding it is safe to follow this trend.
This is a monumental political shift. In previous years, the subject of marijuana only came up for presidential candidates on a very personal level. Bill Clinton, famously, "didn't inhale." Since Clinton, many presidential candidates have admitted smoking pot at some point in their lives, most of them brushing it off as a "youthful indiscretion" (Barack Obama was notable for refuting Clinton with: "I inhaled frequently -- that was the point!"). But now we have moved on from the question of personal use back in college to seriously discussing how the federal laws on marijuana make absolutely no sense at all, and never did. The moderators asking the questions still need to do a bit of basic research (to come up with much better and more pointed questions), but for the first time the issue is being treated not as a laughing matter but as an issue that millions of Americans not only care about, but want to see changed.
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 13th, 2015 – 22:32 UTC ]
Below are my snap reactions after listening to tonight's first debate among the Democratic candidates for president. I say "listening to" because that's what I did, I should point out right up front. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I actually could only manage to catch the audio of the debate on AM radio. I mention this as possibly influencing my reactions, because ever since the first televised debate in history, the difference between watching and listening can at times be enormous (people who heard that debate on the radio thought Nixon won, people who saw it on television thought Kennedy won). So if there were any profound visuals tonight, I missed them.
Overall, I would agree with some of the closing statements -- this was a much more substantial debate than anything the Republicans have yet put on. No insults were hurled, no bigoted statements were made, on the whole it was a lot more sober than watching Trump take on all comers. However, having said that, tonight's debate was a lot more spirited and feisty than I expected. There weren't direct face-to-face confrontations, but a lot of differences were clearly outlined between the candidates' stances.
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[ Posted Monday, October 12th, 2015 – 16:53 UTC ]
Although my own personal bias (as anyone can see, from a random sampling of my past columns) is pretty liberal, every so often I feel the responsibility to offer up honest suggestions for Republican politicians to help either themselves or their party. The only times I actually write such columns are when I'm almost certain my advice will be ignored, so I guess that right there also counts as bias. I offer this up as a preamble to today's column, which consists of some advice for John Boehner. In a nutshell, Boehner should use the freedom his caucus has just handed him (by not being able to agree on his successor) to end his legacy by being the savior of any chance Republicans might have in next year's election.
Boehner, to put this in slightly different (and more ungulate) terms, has already nominated himself as the Republican Party's sacrificial lamb. But on his way out, he could also be a very effective scapegoat, thus sparing both his party and the country at large a whole lot of needless drama and economic instability.
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[ Posted Friday, October 9th, 2015 – 17:19 UTC ]
Two weeks ago, we wrote one of these columns and snarkily subtitled it: "New Job Vacancy: Chief GOP Cat-Herder." This week, we really should have gone with: "Babysitting Experience STRONGLY PREFERRED," but Salon had already used it (we'll explain that joke in a bit, promise). Instead, we chose to feature the word which appeared in too many headlines to accurately count over the past two days, because describing what is going on in the Republican Party these days is pretty downright hard to do without using the word "chaos" in some fashion or another.
Chaos is king. Chaos reigns in the House Republican Caucus, reflecting the chaos from the Republican presidential campaign trail. The question is what will emerge from this maelstrom -- a beautiful phoenix-like rebirth of the Grand Old Party, or perhaps such a wide split that the Republican Party fractures the same way the Democrats and the Dixiecrats did over half a century ago. At this point, either outcome seems equally possible. We are in chaotic and uncharted waters, folks. In fact, you can almost hear the Discordians chanting "Hail Eris!" at this point (that was an obscure Robert Anton Wilson joke, just because it seemed like the perfect week to toss it into the mix).
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[ Posted Thursday, October 8th, 2015 – 16:37 UTC ]
It's hard not to have at least a little bit of sympathy for Kevin McCarthy, at this point. When Speaker of the House John Boehner announced he was going to step down, it was the equivalent of the chief engineer jumping off of a train that was barreling down the track, after just having passed a warning that the bridge ahead was washed out. What sane person would relish the chance to preside over an upcoming disaster, after all? McCarthy faced an unwinnable situation from his own ungovernable caucus, and so he intelligently threw up his hands and essentially said: "Why bother even trying?"
This is momentous, because it doesn't happen very often. In normal times, leading the House of Representatives is an honor that many vie for, because it is a powerful position usually only given to those with a long track record and demonstrable leadership qualities. Now we are left with the speaker's chair being the equivalent of a smoking hot potato -- nobody wants to get left holding it.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 – 17:08 UTC ]
Next Tuesday, we will finally get some degree of parity in the world of televised presidential debates, as the Democrats come together for the first time to make their case to the American public. The Republicans have already held two debates and will hold their third later this month. The Democratic National Committee decided to restrict the number of debates held, which has left the field open to the Republicans for two months now. This decision has been hotly debated, mostly by Democrats not named "Hillary Clinton" (who make the case that the debate schedule was shortened to give Hillary an easier time of it). But whatever you think of the decision, we're finally about to see all the Democratic candidates on one stage.
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 6th, 2015 – 16:29 UTC ]
Obama back up again
President Barack Obama had a pretty good month in the polls last month, as he saw his approval take a big step up and his disapproval take a tiny step down. Obama exited the summer doldrums earlier than usual this year, and chalked up a positive month all around. Let's take a look at the new chart.
[Click on graph to see larger-scale version.]
September, 2015
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[ Posted Monday, October 5th, 2015 – 17:01 UTC ]
The Republican field of candidates for president has now entered a winnowing phase where the party's voters are clearly indicating that there are only six viable candidates in the race. From an initial field of 17 candidates, two have dropped out, five are on life support (politically), and four are in stable but critical condition. This has left only Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz with any meaningful chance of winning the party's nomination.
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[ Posted Friday, October 2nd, 2015 – 17:43 UTC ]
Kevin McCarthy is not worthy. Of using the English language correctly, among other things. Amusingly, though, this will likely not stop him from becoming the next speaker of the House. And if his past is any prologue, hearing the speaker speak should provide all sorts of amusement for the rest of us. It may not be the return of the garbled George W. Bush era of mangled English, but it could be close.
Without getting into the fallout of his recent announcement that Republicans had indeed convened the Benghazi committee to politically take Hillary Clinton down a few pegs, his statement led up to a key pronouncement: "She's untrustable." Um... "untrustable"? Is that anything like "non-trustally-minded"? Or maybe "distrustacious"? How about "untrustalicious"? I mean, the English language is flexible, so if the poetry muse strikes, why not come up with something even more hilarious to the late-night comics, such as perhaps "atrustadonkadonk"? Hillary Clinton might not be trustworthy, but Kevin McCarthy is just plain not worthy of being anybody's "speaker," really.
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[ Posted Thursday, October 1st, 2015 – 19:32 UTC ]
No column today. Airport runs and family responsibilities, sorry.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
