Bill Maher on Legalized Weed, Cultural Change, And People Who Want Their Country Back

The current issue of Rolling Stone is devoted to "The New Stoned Age", an exploration of how changing attitudes toward pot and decriminalization may affect our society.  (Perhaps nothing illustrates those changes more than the octogenarian companion of my wife's nonagenarian mom asking us recently if we could possibly procure some weed -- for medicinal purposes, of course.)

The cover story was written by Bill Maher, one of my favorites.  The following excerpt was the best part, I thought:

"Legalization [of pot] is another of those issues, like gay marriage, that drives Tea Bag people crazy.  That Leave It To Beaver black-and-white 1950's image that Mitt Romney fit into so well is going away, and one reason is marijuana.  Bill Clinton once said, 'If you look back on the Sixties and think there was more good than harm, you're probably a Democrat.  If you think there was more harm than good, you're probably a Republican."  Well, for those people who loved the Fifties, pot played a huge role in the cultural revolution they detest.

"Republicans have been an uneasy alliance of Jesus freaks, gun nuts, generic obese suburbanites and the super-rich, but what really binds them together is this idea that life was perfect in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1958.  As soon as President Obama was elected, this visual of a black guy who once smoked pot walking into the White House was just too much.  Whenever you hear them say, 'I want my country back' -- back from what?  Did Blackmanistan invade us?  They may want it back, but that America is gone forever."