Dick Morris is recycling his moronic advice to President Bush. He thinks he has the answer to get Bush to bounce back, including:
Put the drug fight front and center: Demand drug testing in schools with parental consent, and tax incentives for workplace drug testing. Link cocaine to terrorism, and build a national consensus for tough measures to cut demand.
Maia Szalavitz responds at Huffington Post:
Finally, although in the past, it was quite easy to scream “drug” and have everyone get distracted and drop everything including their pants and their civil liberties, I don’t think Bush will find it especially easy to build the national consensus Morris wants these days.
Attorney general Ashcroft was widely ridiculed for his emphasis on fighting bongs, not bombs when he cracked down on drug paraphernalia merchants after 9/11. And the Superbowl ads that linked teen drug users to terrorists didn’t do much better.
I’m afraid you can’t use fear to sell more than one war at a time, and Bush is stuck with the war he’s got.
I hope she’s right.
And to the extent that she is, it’s got to be partly due to the large number of drug policy reformers who have been tirelessly not letting the drug warriors get away with it.