Getting Over The Post Election Blues

There has been quite a bit of buzz on the activist websites, starting even before election day, to put the best face on the fact that we very well may (and indeed, we did) lose a very important campaign in California. (Arizona, as of this morning is still too close to call.)

The essence of the positive spin is that we have moved the nature of the debate forward in some very important ways and we are ready to start again and work on 2012. I know that it is important to put your best game face on and we certainly have a lot to be proud of. I don’t want to be a spoil sport, or seem overly whiny and I’ll certainly try to hold back that inclination.

Nonetheless, let me state the obvious: We lost where we should have won. Almost winning an electoral campaign is like almost eating or almost getting laid or almost crossing the street before the bus hits you.

Yes, we can dust ourselves off and start again. Indeed, we must. But let’s take a hard look at ourselves and our movement, analyze our weaknesses as well as our strengths and get our act together!

There is a tendency among our base to believe that change is inevitable and logic or cultural shifts will eventually correct matters. I heard that noise 35 years ago. We need to be clear. In politics, nothing is inevitable. Change happens when we make it happen. It does not happen on its own. We need to counter the tendency to just wait and let things sort out own their own.

There is also a tendency to not take the issue very seriously. Support for marijuana is a mile wide but only inches deep. Amongst our general supporters there is a feeling that other issues are more important. After all, there is war, hunger, pollution, etc. We need to show how all these issues link together and how changing marijuana policy is part of solving these other “more important” problems.

Marijuana has been so infused into pop culture in so many ways that there is a general sense that the game is already won and marijuana is virtually legal. What’s the fuss?

We need to bring the issues home. The nearly a million people a year arrested for marijuana in the USA count. The hundreds of thousands of people sitting in jails and prisons for marijuana count. The thousands of victims of our nation’s drug policy killed just across our border in Mexico count.  

But none of the above explains why we lost in California and while we are still counting votes in Arizona, which should have been a slam dunk.

What killed us is a lack of unity and focus, political immaturity, and a foot dragging. Too many so-called activists took themselves too seriously and the politics too lightly. We split hairs, let egos get in the way and held back support for the “less than perfect”.

All politics is compromise. All politics is coalition building. There is no such thing as a perfect campaign, but there is such a thing as a winning campaign.

We need to grow up and act on our common interests. When we put forward a program, we must work together to present the clearest and best winnable bill we can. We need to bring together our core base. Once the wording is decided upon, we must put aside hairsplitting over any reservations we may have and present a united front.

I sat in Federal Prison during the Presidential election. During the two years that followed, I watched a lot of positive change take place concerning marijuana policy. I am now on Federal Probation for the next 6 years. My right to vote has been stripped as a result of the enforcement of prohibition. Every vote counts. How many of our constituency is forbidden from voting? How many more will have their voting rights stripped before the next election.  

It is a good idea to evaluate the where we stand. And winning feels much better than losing. Yea, you win some and you lose some. That doesn’t make me feel much better. How about you? Let’s get our act together.