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• Sunday, August 24, 2008 04:13 PM

  @Zorba

  If Joe Biden were the presidential nominee, I'd demand to know that he's changed his support for the Drug War Siege before considering to vote for him.

  But he's a vice-presidential nominee, not running for president. So I'm not going to spurn the ticket based on his record on that issue.

  And if the Obama-Biden ticket wins, I think that Biden will face strong pressure from drug law reform supporters, based on his record. I think that discussion is almost certain to happen in the event of an Obama/Biden victory, in fact. Perhaps science, rationality, and empirical assessment will even get a voice, rather than having the topic monopolized by demagoguery and superstition.

  The thing is, I think that an Obama/Biden victory would allow a national debate on the Zero Tolerance Drug War to take place. A McCain victory would almost certainly continue the China-style official blackout on dissent and the phony projection of a fake popular consensus approval of the Drug War Siege that's been a hallmark of previous administrations.

  As for VP picks- would you rather deal with the Drug War views of, say, Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge, Mike Huckabee, or Rudy Giuliani? Because I think that's the Republican short list.

  For me, one encouraging sign is simply the fact that Biden accepted Obama's offer to be on the ticket- an indication that Biden realizes that a record of experience with illegal mind-altering substances doesn't equate to permanent mental and physical ruination.

  Both Biden and Obama had better be ready with a forthright answer if someone offers a criticism or question along that line, though- because as far as I can tell, the "Obama drug use" thing is the closest thing the Republicans have to an October Surprise, this time around. The choice of Biden works to take a lot of their other tale-spinning material away from them.

  But whatever the case with Biden's- or Obama's- stated views on the Drug War in this campaign, I'm voting for them. For that matter, they'd have to go waay off the charts on almost any issue I can think of. That's how fed up I am with nut-kicking Republican political tactics.

  To work at all, a two-party system needs to function as a principled, sincere dialectic between opposing viewpoints. The Republicans show no interest in that. Not only do they not want to open a dialogue, they don't even want to allow one.

  —cabdriver Read cabdriver's other letters
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