You’ve got to hand it to the Obama team: web 2.0 was not just a campaign strategy for them. The latest online move within the most transparent administration ever at Change.gov was a poll called “Open Questions” that asks you- you!- what the most important issues facing the president-elect are.
The really cool, web 2.0 part of this exercise? Other users voted submitted issues up and those receiving the most votes were placed in the highest prominence. Call it democracy 2.0.
The number one issue on yours, mine, and Joe the Plumber’s mind in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression?
“Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”
As Chris Bowers of Open Left noted, “This should be a question that the incoming administration has to answer. It is, after all, not a small problem, not an issue on which there is consensus, and has not been addressed elsewhere. The Internet has long provided an outlet for issues and questions ignored by gatekeeper media. It is nice to see that “Open for Questions” is proving no exception.”
Mr. Bowers is right that there is not a consensus here, but it’s hard to think of an issue that falls more squarely upon generational lines. During the primary campaign, Obama talked alot about moving beyond the politics of the 1960’s and the long hangover it left. He talked of moving beyond the belief that how one views the sixties is a shortcut to their political ideology.
I believe Mr. Obama is right- we have moved beyond the sixties litmus test. I spent some of my college years and beyond following the southern jamband Widespread Panic. The nucleus of Panic’s fan base is the deep south, and those fans can be found in some proportion at most of their shows. Here are a few things I can tell you about that fan base: they’re from conservative states and were raised in conservative households. Many hated Clinton. They drove SUV’s, hunted, and watched a lot of college football. Their attitudes about race and homosexuality were not typically progressive. And they smoked massive amounts of marijuana.
In marijuana Mr. Obama can find proof of his campaign contention that we’ve moved beyond the politics of the sixties. It’s right there on his website: 16 of the top 50 questions were on drug policy. Regardless of the outcome, how can he not respond?
Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil