2016 Postmortem

products of a bygone era, like the 80s and 90s when we got hammered on this "values" crap. Look how long it has taken us to finally push back on the fucking drug war. For years we had pols who tried to out-do the GOP in terms of racking up higher and higher mandatory minimum sentences for dangerous 'crimes' like smoking a joint.

Another good example is marriage equality. Round about 2004, we had members of our party falling all over each other to "protect traditional marriage". Even if that was where the votes were, then- and I still say the power of the "values voter" was overestimated even then- the problem with not displaying leadership even when it is politically inconvenient is, it looks worse when you finally come around to do the right thing.

It's another reason I like Newsom, even though I originally thought he was an overly-slick Marina yuppie; because he actually led on these issues when the "smart political money" said "you can't go there".