Well, what do you know. People really do read the articles in Playboy after all. Forget the centerfold. We want to see Jesse "The Lip" Ventura. Churchgoers are weak-minded? A little grab-ass at the Tailhook convention was no big deal? Legalize prostitution? Decriminalize marijuana? Minnesotans must be wondering what the hell they were smoking when they elected Jesse as governor.

And while we are on the subject of loose lips, what about the Republican governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson? He favors legalizing the sale of marijuana AND heroin. (He hasn't formulated a position on cocaine yet, but he will let us know if and when he does.) In his view, we should stop SPENDING a fortune in taxes on a losing war against drugs and begin COLLECTING a fortune in taxes from sales of marijuana and heroin.

Meanwhile, Trent Lott, the Senate Majority Leader, has inserted special language into the District of Columbia's budget that prohibits the District from legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. This stems from a fascinating exercise in democracy in which the U.S. Congress barred the District of Columbia from even counting the votes from a referendum on marijuana that was held in November 1998. It took a Federal judge to remind the Congress that this is not how we do things in America.

So while the two governors advocate total access to marijuana, Trent Lott is saying what a terrible message it would send to the American people if marijuana was legalized for any use, including cancer patients. It is apparently perfectly okay to smoke cigarettes, knowing they might cause cancer, but it is NOT okay to smoke a joint to alleviate the nausea that comes from trying to fight the cancer with chemotherapy.

Senator Lott is in the familiar position of those who choose to defend orthodoxy in the face of changing times. Maybe ten years ago you could argue that the benefits of marijuana for cancer patients were unproven. You can't say that today. But, if you see yourself as a defender of the faith, as a guardian of social values, then you must ignore any new knowledge that might chip away at the foundation of your position.

Look at the gun lobby. Ten years ago we didn't have kids shooting up schools. Now we do. Does that moderate the NRA's stance on individual ownership of handguns? Not at all. They carry on about how we should enforce the laws we have rather than create new laws, while conveniently overlooking the fact that they fought tooth and nail against the passage of those very laws. Maybe if those laws had been passed ten years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today.

Pro-choice and pro-life groups do the same thing. Any change, no matter how tiny, that might tilt the balance one way or the other is fiercely resisted. Why fight over partial birth abortions, a rarely used procedure that falls fully within the scope of States to regulate under Roe v. Wade? Because it might lead to a ban on all abortions. Want to keep the crazies from harassing women in front of abortion clinics. Hey, we're talking free speech here. See you in court.

A reasonable person might ask if this is the best way to make public policy. Probably not. But in today's acrimonious political environment, where no one is willing to compromise, where no one has the credibility needed to be an honest broker of differences, we are reduced to the rigid defense of orthodoxy.

You and I might have a good laugh at the expense of political mavericks like Jesse Ventura or Pat "We Made Hitler Do It" Buchanan. The professional politicians take them very seriously, because the professional politician is first, last, and always worried about the next election. Winning elections means getting people to believe what you tell them. They want only their voice to be heard, not the voices of people who can't be controlled. Don't believe me? Watch how fast Ventura and Buchanan are excommunicated from the congregation if they don't repent.

Copyright © by G.J. Lau

G.J. Lau toils deep in the bowels of the Washington bureaucracy. A long-time observer of American politics and mores, he now edits his own e-zine Singleminded, which can be found at : http://www.pipeline.com/~gjlau/emag/