55.8 Million Americans Persecuted By Both the Democrats and Republicans
In its 2010 World Drug Report the United Nations estimated that fully 18% or more of the United States population smoked marijuana in 2008 and the number was increasing. (World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf, pg. 202)
The Libertarian Party has the numbers it has today, in large part, due to conservatives who oppose the War on Drugs enough that they cannot associate themselves with their natural affinity group the Republican Party.
So too the Green Party holds that same appeal for disaffected Americans who would otherwise have a natural affinity with the Democratic Party. The new Justice Party, led by former Salt Lake City Democratic mayor Rocky Anderson, is attracting voters with their overt opposition to the War on Drugs. And many Independents, like myself, are Independents because we are fed up with the single minded Drug War policy of the two dominance parties. (Pot smokers are, by and large, middle class white Americans who have the disposable income to buy proscribed intoxicants.)
The War on Drugs has so changed the complexion of the two big parties that their respective candidates can’t poll better than neck and neck at this late point in the election in this diverse nation of ours. Most try to ignore the significance of a large population mischaracterized as undecided when they are really opposed to both major party candidates in part due to this issue.
Has the War on Drugs, cumulatively persecuting and disenfranchising hundreds of millions of Americans in its forty-one years, finally hit its wild card critical mass? Will the outcome of this election hinge on which major candidate can appeal to pot smokers? Or do the Democrats and Republicans all think that they have criminally disenfranchised a large enough portion of this constituency to ignore it at their electoral effect?
