Bill Maher calls out marijuana smoking presidents and candidates
Bill Maher sometimes seems obsessed as he pushes for marijuana legalization. He normally does it in a tongue and cheek fashion. He has a lot of fun with it. The clip montage above is extremely funny. Most importantly it makes one think about the reality about our drug policy broadly and marijuana policy specifically.
“Everyone from Bill Clinton to Newt Gingrich, Al Gore to Rick Santorum, John Kerry to Sarah Palin, have all fest up (to smoking marijuana),” said Bill Maher. “Come on, when even Ted Cruz cops to it, that one surprised me.”
Maher was pointing out that these political powerhouses all committed a ‘crime’ that went unpunished. “The problem I have,” Bill Maher said. “is that this is the standard answer we get from all these guys nowadays, some form of ‘hey when I was young and stupid I was young and stupid. It is no big deal.’ Which is great, except that is not a defense that is really available for most of the seven hundred thousand Americans who get arrested every year.”
Bill Maher goes on to point out that having White parents and/or being well connected guarantees better treatment from the justice system. He then pointed out Governor Jeb Bush’s encounter with marijuana.
“When Jeb Bush was at prep school, he was apparently not just a pothead but a dealer,” Bill Maher said. “But he dismisses that by saying ‘Back then I was a cynical little turd at a cynical school.’ OK. But then when you became a governor of a state you insisted on mandatory sentences for drug crimes and a policy of jail only, no treatment for drug users. Except when it was your daughter. When you made an exception. Wow that sounds like something a cynical turd would do.”
Maher pointed out that every president since George Herbert Walker Bush has been a pot smoker. They paid no consequences because of their state in the social construct of this nation.
“But don’t all these guys, Clinton, Jeb, W, Obama, don’t they all owe a debt to the forty thousand unlucky Americans currently in jail for doing the exact same crime?” Bill Maher asked. “Come on man, you’ve gone down the list reversing the stupidity of the past, healthcare, torture, gay marriage, immigration, Cuba. It’s pot’s turn.”
Bill then suggested that President Obama pardon all those doing time for smoking marijuana or non-violent drug crimes. He pointed out that there is precedent for that move. “Lincoln, a Republican pardoned the Southern rebels after the civil war,” Bill Maher said. “Ford, a Republican pardoned Vietnam draft dodgers. Ronald Reagan signed an amnesty for 2.7 million Mexican illegals. If Republicans can forgive people for armed insurrection, desertion, and speaking Spanish, a Democrat can forgive us for getting high.”
This is very funny. However there is much that one should take in context.