Sunday, June 16, 2013

McAuliffe and Cuccinelli asked about prior drug use while the real issues remain sidelined


After Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and aspiring Democratic Party candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, confirmed their drug free past, it once again raises an important question for political representatives and those aspiring to be one: should one’s past ‘mistakes’, even as a young person, be a reason for disqualification and/or embarrassment?

After Republican candidate for Lt. Gov., E.W. Jackson, admitted to using illegal drugs in the past, the two candidates running for Virginia governor were also put to the fire to answer this ridiculous question.

Behind these questions of illegal drug use are a number of assumptions. First, someone who has used illegal drugs is beyond the pale, someone who has transgressed the laws of society and cannot therefore be entrusted with the reins of government or the public trust in general. Second, if their judgment was this cloudy before, the assumption goes, who’s to say that their judgment won’t be cloudy again as a public representative?

All of these assumptions are, of course, ridiculous. I can vividly recall the many foolish things I did as a kid and I’m sure just about everyone in America can think of at least one instance as a child when they did something that we as adults would perceive to be extremely foolish. And who’s to say that smoking some ‘pot’, for instance, is any more or any less foolish than the acts we committed?

Who cares if E.W. Jackson smoked pot when he was younger or if Cuccinelli or McAuliffe tried illegal drugs in the past? If this is a disqualifier for public service we’ve got a lot of public representative spots to fill.

The point is that our society loves to ask unimportant questions about issues that are greater headline grabbers than they are important topics in the continuing policy discussions that we so desperately need. Instead of asking about candidate drug use, let’s talk about the horrendous drug laws on the books across the country that have landed thousands of low-level offenders in prison. Now that’s a crime.

Let’s also talk about our economy, gun control, voting rights, Virginia’s future, and much more, just not candidate drug use. With that said, I say no more on the subject…

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