David Michael Miller
For proponents of medical marijuana in Wisconsin, things are looking up. At the state Capitol, Republicans are starting to break ranks from their historically cannaphobic caucuses.
In September, Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) introduced a medical marijuana bill with two of his Democratic colleagues. Testin’s motivations were mostly personal. He had seen firsthand how dramatically the drug relieved his grandfather’s debilitating cancer symptoms.
In December, Republican Rep. Mary Felzkowski of Irma, a cancer survivor, co-authored a medical marijuana bill in the state Assembly. “Having been through what I’ve gone through, I don’t think the government should tell me what I could take,” she said. In voicing his support, Republican Rep. John Macco (R-Ledgeview) spoke of his wife’s travels out of state to procure medicinal marijuana.
Do you see a pattern here? These Republicans deviated from the party line on medical marijuana because the issue touched their lives personally.
Personal experience should influence politicians. How could it not? But I chafe at those who “see the light” because trouble has landed on their own doorstep. We elect leaders to deal with our problems, not theirs.
Consider the case of U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R–OH). Back when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Portman co-sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act. In 1999, he voted to bar adoption by same-sex couples in the District of Columbia.
Up through his 2010 Senate campaign, Portman favored a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. But by 2013, he had completely reversed his stance on marriage equality. All it took was finding out that a family member’s happiness was at stake. “Knowing that my son is gay,” wrote Portman after his son came out, “prompted me to consider the issue from another perspective: that of a dad who wants all three of his kids to lead happy, meaningful lives with the people they love.” For the millions of same-sex couples who endured DOMA, it must be gratifying to know that Portman is such a caring father.
This same sort of perceptual myopia was on display in Maine this past spring, where the Legislature struggled over a bill to give terminally ill patients access to life-ending drugs. In early June, the statehouse passed the Maine Death with Dignity Act by a single vote, sending it to the Senate.
Though her party’s national platform opposes aid-in-dying, Republican state Sen. Marianne Moore came out in support of the bill. In doing so, she shared intimate, disturbing details of her father’s death. “I know in my heart if daddy would have been able to direct his death with dignity, he would have left this world at peace and with little pain.” In a collective bout of empathy, Moore’s fellow Republican senators realized that they would feel just the same about physician-assisted death, had they been through what she had.
Just kidding. But wouldn’t that have been nice? In fact, Moore was the only Republican senator who voted for the bill, which was ultimately enacted.
This kind of thing happens with Democrats, too. In late 1988, with public life behind him, former U.S. Sen. and presidential nominee George McGovern bought and renovated a 150-room hotel in Connecticut, fulfilling a longtime dream. He was almost immediately surprised by how much “anxiety” comes with owning an independent business in America, telling a visiting reporter from the Washington Post, “I’ve had to meet a payroll every week. I’ve got to pay the bank every month…. I’ve got to pay the state of Connecticut taxes.”
By 1992 the hotel was bankrupt, and McGovern was out of the hospitality business. “I wish,” he wrote at the time, “that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator.” Chief among the difficulties he cited were “public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.”
To be a better senator, McGovern could have just listened to the small business owners he represented. The ones I know are eager to talk about the stupid hoops that government makes them jump through.
McGovern, Portman and the pot-supporting Wisconsin Republicans ended up where they should be, per their fundamental values. But for every such happy ending there must be hundreds of political leaders operating in ignorance, for want of relevant personal experience. They are unwilling or unable to do their most important job — perhaps their only job, which is to muster empathy from a distance.
