Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jan 2014
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2014 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Joan Vennochi

SMOKE SIGNALS FROM THE DEMOCRATS

Hope and change are yesterday's buzz words.

Today, Democrats are turning straight to drugs to generate buzz.

"Legalization of marijuana is going to become an issue," veteran
Democratic strategist Tad Devine told the Globe. "I believe it's an
issue that will absolutely activate a voter base, of young people in
particular."

Maybe it will energize the party's liberal base - if those voters
aren't too stoned to get to the polls. But whether it's aimed at the
2014 midterm elections, or at 2016, there's something
desperate-looking about the Democrats' latest smoke signals.

Watching Republican Governor Chris Christie try to extricate himself
from the still-unfolding tale of vengeance and the George Washington
Bridge apparently isn't reassuring enough for a party determined to
keep the White House after President Obama exits. Neither is the
Democrats' commitment to immigration reform and gay marriage versus
the Republicans' counter-commitment to sequester and government shutdown.

If Democrats need pot to get out the youth vote, they really do have
something to worry about.

In an obvious pitch to the jobless and underemployed, Democrats are
now pushing to extend unemployment benefits and raise the minimum
wage. Even if you agree with those policies, you must acknowledge that
a weak economy is driving the need for them. While the country has
recovered from the worst of the recession, the gap between rich and
poor is greater than ever and the jobless and the underemployed are
getting more frustrated with the status quo.

Many of those hardest hit by the slow recovery are young people. So
what better way to motivate them than a march on Washington for the
latest civil right - the right to get high?

If Democrats need pot to get out the vote - especially the youth vote
- - they really do have something to worry about. Already, national
polls highlight the problem. Young people are turned off by politics
in general and by the president in particular. A poll of more than
2,000 18- to 29-year-olds, taken by Harvard's Institute of Politics,
revealed that half of those surveyed would recall Obama if they could.
The president has a 41 percent job approval rating with these young
voters, who are worried about the cost of college and the personal
debt attached to it. Some 57 percent said they disapproved of
Obamacare; 40 percent said they believe health care will worsen under
the federal health reform law; and 51 percent said they believe health
care costs will increase under Obamacare.

Those voter concerns play out against the backdrop of a still-weak
economy. The national unemployment rate is 6.7 percent and last month
the unemployment rate in Massachusetts hit 7.1 percent, surpassing the
nation's for the first time in five years.

Maybe the upward tick of the Bay State's jobless rate explains why
Massachusetts has been targeted by advocates who favor the
legalization of marijuana.

"In 2016, Massachusetts will find itself in the crosshairs for
cannabis reform," promised Allen St. Pierre, executive director of
NORML, a national group that is vying to get a question on the 2016
ballot calling for the drug's legalization.

If you can't find them jobs, give them pot.

I rarely agree with Michael Graham, the Boston Herald's conservative
columnist. But as he points out, it would be ironic for Bay State
liberals to ban Styrofoam cups, bottled water, and smoking in parks,
yet embrace a libertarian view when it comes to marijuana.

Of course, it hasn't happened yet. And so far, none of the candidates
running for governor are getting behind the push to legalize pot. But
the candidates are getting their pot-smoking confessions out of the
way. Republican Charlie Baker and Democrats Donald Berwick, Steve
Grossman, and Juliette Kayyem said they used marijuana. Democrats
Martha Coakley and Joseph Avellone said they haven't.

Back in the day, the Age of Aquarius was naturally aligned with
Democrats. But the motivating issues were peace, love, civil rights,
and gender equality. In this day and age, young people are going to
align themselves with the political party offering the clearest path
to work and upward mobility.

People want jobs, not jobless benefits. An increase in the minimum
wage is preferable to one that stays the same, but who wants to settle
for earning the minimum wage?

There's not enough Purple Haze to obscure the grimness of that
reality.
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MAP posted-by: Matt