Pete Guither, Jew

Over at Drug WarRant, author Pete Guither is writing about unexpectedly making the news. He endorsed Tari Renner for the Illinois 11th district, over Jerry Weller, the incumbent, because Renner’s drug policies are better than Weller’s. Weller, for example, thinks it’s a great idea for the federal government to harass and imprison patients taking medical marijuana despite the fact that their doctor recommends it and their state’s laws allow it.

Now Weller has started using Pete Guither’s endorsement as a way to attack Renner. Weller’s people are saying that Guither’s Drug WarRant site promotes drug use and encourages people to use heroin, neither of which are true. Drug WarRant is a typical legalization site: Guither’s rants are not in praise of drug use but in condemnation of the War on Drugs.

Weller’s opponent, Tari Renner, isn’t much help either. Pete Guither, who lives in the 11th district, had sent Renner’s campaign a contribution, but Renner’s office just sent it back.

Sigh.

My title is probably unfair. Just because congressman Weller’s people are making up vicious lies about Pete Guither, and just because candidate Renner’s people don’t even want to come close enough to Pete Guither to take his money, doesn’t mean they’re treating drug war opponents like the 1930s Nazis treated the Jews.

Guither’s article just made me despair a little. If the Ku Klux Klan gives your campaign money, you give it back. If an Al-Qaeda-linked “charity” gives you money, you give it back. Do these politicians really put drug legalization into the same category as racism and terrorism? Do these people actually see Pete Guither’s views, Pete Guither’s values, my values, as so abhorrent that they don’t even want our money? That they slander and libel us? Are they that disgusted at the thought of not hurting drug users and putting them in cages?

Crap. I don’t have an ending. I just sit here sputtering about what assholes these people are. Well, this will have to do: Pete, I just hit your tip jar for $20. I have no interest in coffee myself, being more of a Diet Coke head, but have a few pounds on me.