Drugs. Race. Silence.

Arianna Huffington’s powerful piece “The War on Drugs is Really a War on Minorities,” which was in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, is now reprinted at Alternet today:

While all the major candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed “war on drugs” — a war that has morphed into a war on people of color.

This gives me a chance to promote the article again, while noting the deafening silence produced by its publication on Saturday.
This was a piece with profound political significance, published in a major national paper, yet within all the major online liberal and conservative political communities, there has been nary a peep about it.
Sure, it got mentioned in the drug policy reform and the law and sentencing online communities, plus a couple of livejournals and a single liberal blog (True Blue Liberal) that I hadn’t heard of before. Daily Kos? Not a mention in stories, diaries, or comments that I could find. The other major liberal blogs? Nothing.
What about the conservatives? Where was the “Hey, Arianna Huffington is trashing Clinton and Obama — go watch the fun!”? Nowhere.
Now for a blog to be silent on one article is no big deal. I certainly don’t write about, or link to, everything important that happens regarding drug policy reform. I can’t do that, and blogging is really about highlighting selective items, and creating a tapestry.
But the fact that the entire massive liberal and conservative political online presence essentially ignored Arianna’s column, certainly seems to say something about the political discomfort with the subject.