Follow Up on Agendas: Marijuana Legalization

A friend of mine recently posted that the Democratic Nominee for Governor of Wisconsin, Mary Burke, is receptive to proposals to legalize medical marijuana. I support her on this issue, I would go further and follow the Colorado model on pot. Of course it will not happen, uptight dairy state denizens would pillory a major party candidate campaigning for that. But legalized marijuana would go a long way toward rebuilding schools and social services in the state.

Enter Libertarian Robert Burke (I can't believe that is actually his name, two Burkes for the same office?) who is also running for Governor. He does support legalization, but would do it the Libertarian way so I can't get behind his platform. Libertarians are the "too cool for you" hipster party and one day I will detail all the ways that I can't stand them. But for now it is important to note that there is an uncool group that also supports libertarianism; billionaires like the Koch brothers. 

The columnist John Nichols wrote today about the difficult relationship between stuffy, rich, old white men; their henchmen; and insufferable young hipsters. What these groups have in common is a narcissistic, smug, sense of superiority, and a complete lack of humor or self-awareness. There are only a handful of these guys running around and they are definitely not an electoral coalition (Robert's campaign Facebook page has 1,279 "likes") but they infect everyone around them by force of will.

It is these wannabes who are the target of new ads designed to siphon off a few votes from Mary Burke. From the article:

American Future Fund is an enthusiastically conservative organization that each election season fills the airwaves with ads hailing right-wing causes and socially conservative Republican candidates while ripping Democratic officials and contenders.
But, this fall, the group is also jumping into battleground states with social-media campaigns hailing third-party candidates, legalization of marijuana and "our progressive values."
Confused? Don't be. In close races, those third-party candidates might just pull a few votes away from Democratic contenders, who are specifically attacked in the ads. Yes, that's playing the margins. But when money is no object, every strategy gets tried.
Welcome to the brave new world of hyper-cynical, win-at-any-cost big-money politics. (emphasis mine)

Robert Burke also shared Nichols' article and the one comment just summed up everything I hate about libertarians:

I just watched all of these commercials for the first time. I don't know what the Democrats are afraid of. It's obvious these commercials were done by old, white people who think they know what cool is and what attracts the college crowd. The actors are poor and have dumb expressions. They remind me of the losers in college who always got so drunk, they woke up the next morning with a shaved head. I was usually the jerk who gave shaves to passed out drunks on my dorm floor. It pretty much insults the intelligence of the college crowd and underestimates their ability to see through this. Anybody dumb enough to believe these ads are most likely not going to vote at all. Too much effort to get off the couch. Why is this getting press and not the debate exclusions?

You see, it is a pretty exclusive club. They are both bullies and victims... man.

American Future Fund is targeting these "losers" who desperately want to sit at the cool kids table but might "get off the couch" and vote for Mary Burke. It is quite difficult to simultaneously be a libertarian and care about anyone but yourself. This "serious and sincere Libertarian" may describe the people behind this cynical ploy as "morons" but he also attracts some serious jerks to his crusade. That agenda is to completely atomize society, leaving us entirely at the mercy of our corporate masters. It is an agenda shared by both groups of libertarians, but at least we will all be able to "get blazed" man.