Jacob Sullum's 'Guns and Dope Party' book

Robert Anton Wilson advanced the idea of a "Guns and Dope Party" (originally suggested, if I recall correctly, by writer Bill Helmer) to bring together "gun nuts" and "dopers" into a libertarian alliance.

I have cited writer Jacob Sullum quite a few times in this blog, as he is very good about writing about the "war on some drugs," as RAW called it. I recently noticed that Sullum has a new "guns and dope" book out.

The book is called BEYOND CONTROL: Drug Prohibition, Gun Regulation, and the Search for Sensible Alternatives. From the publisher's blurb:

"Decades of research have produced scant evidence that popular gun control prescriptions, such as assault weapon bans, universal background checks, restrictions on ownership, and red flag laws, work as advertised. Research on the impact of the war on drugs likewise provides little reason to believe that its doubtful benefits outweigh its myriad costs. In both cases, the burdens often fall on peaceful individuals who pose no threat to public safety, and the policies seem ill-designed to reduce the problems they aim to address.

"Sullum notes that critics of gun control and critics of the war on drugs make similar points, complaining that these policies are unfair, invasive, poorly targeted, and ineffective. But because these two sets of critics tend to come from opposing political camps, they usually overlook their common ground. Beyond Control surveys that territory, showing that conservatives and progressives share concerns about overcriminalization, overzealous law enforcement, draconian penalties, and the erosion of civil liberties."

My local library doesn't have his book so I submitted a request for it to be purchased. 

More here. 

Did the Guns and Dope Party win?

A graphic for the Guns and Dope Party, from Rasa's website. 

When Robert Anton Wilson ran for governor of California in 2003, he ran as the candidate of the Guns and Dope Party. The name comes from these positions in the party's platform: "Guns for everybody who wants them; no guns for those who don't want them. Drugs for everybody who wants them; no drugs forthose who don't want them." The Guns and Dope Party seems generally libertarian, if you overlook the satirical aspects of the party's platform. 

While the two main American political parties have arguably become less libertarian in recent years, the U.S. also has become more libertarian, at least in terms of regulating personal behavior. 

This trend seems certainly true in Ohio, where I live. Last fall, voters approved two state questions. One puts legal abortion in the state constitution. The other legalizes possession and use of marijuana; marijuana stores for the general public will open in Ohio later this year. 

Here in Ohio, I am also allowed to set off fireworks in public during numerous holidays during the year, not just the the Fourth of July. That's a relatively new law. Gun laws, never very restrictive in Ohio, have become even less so. For example, in 2022 Ohio dropped requiring permits for the concealed carry of a handgun. Now you can tote one around without a background check or any training requirements. Betting on the outcome of sports games also recently became legal. Casino gambling was legalized some years ago and is available in all of the big cities. No one has to go out to buy porn anymore; it's on the Internet. It's become easier in Ohio for people to choose what schools their kids will go to; most people except the quite wealthy can obtain vouchers to make it easier to send their kids to private schools, including religious ones. 

In some cases, Republican lawmakers who control the legislature simply passed laws; in a few cases, as in last year's state questions, they blocked action and the voters overrode them. 

The trends I am citing are generally true in the U.S. States continue to legalize marijuana in the U.S. Casino gambling and gambling on sports, once mostly confined to Las Vegas, has spread to many areas of the U.S. The people who support "school choice" vouchers for everyone have won in several states. Gay marriage has become the law of the land and is generally accepted. 

Even in nonpolitical ways, life has become less restrictive. You choose your gender. American football was on TV only two days a week when I was young; now in football season, it's most days. Major league baseball when I was  young was only on TV one time a week, on Saturday afternoon, until the playoffs arrived. Now baseball is on TV every day, during baseball season. 

This seems like an impressive list for doing what you want to do in your personal life, not just in comparison to repressive regimes such as North Korea and Saudi Arabia, but also in comparison to most countries of the western world, where legal marijuana and buying all the guns you want is not really the norm. 

There are a couple of apparent exceptions to my general rule about the country becoming more libertarian. 

The Supreme Court overruled the Roe v. Wade decision and allowed abortion to be decided by the states, and many states have criminalized the procedure, so on the surface that's an example of less free choice. 

But in every state where the issue has gone on the ballot as a state question in the wake of the ruling, the pro-abortion side has won, including in Ohio. This statement is true about both liberal and conservative states; when the people themselves are allowed to decide, they vote not to let the government interfere with medical decisions. As a political matter, abortion (and most recently, IVF) has become the biggest issue Democrats can use to attack Republicans, with the possible exception of the existence of Donald Trump.

And I think it's possible that on guns in Ohio, left leaning political groups may succeed in putting gun control on the ballot and imposing certain restrictions that seem generally popular, such as background checks for all gun sales. But even with such changes, I doubt Ohio will become more restrictive than most western countries. I suspect the opposite will remain true. 

Jacob Sullum working on 'guns and dope' book

When Robert Anton Wilson ran for governor of California in 2003, the central conceit was that most of the people who oppose restrictions on guns are right wingers, and most of the people who oppose the "war on some drugs" are on the left. So by opposing gun laws AND drug laws, a libertarian coalition could be formed.

Jacob Sullum, a writer for Reason magazine, is a writer I read often because of his reliably accurate news and commentary on the war on drugs. He also writes a lot about gun issues, although I am less interested  in that issue and read those pieces less often.

In the course of a Twitter/X thread to promote Reason's current fund-raising webathon, Sullum reveals that he's working on a "guns and dope" book: "After 3 decades of covering drug & gun policies for@reason, I am writing a book that explores these themes, showing that left-leaning critics of the drug war and right-leaning critics of gun control, despite their ideological differences, share many of the same concerns."

It should be an interesting book.

Here is Jesse Walker promoting the webathon.

 

A British 'Guns and Dope Party,' with good manners

John Stuart Mill (with his daughter, feminist Harriet Taylor)

You will recall that RAW invented the Guns and Dope Party, a libertarian party uniting the signature libertarian issue of the right (guns) with that of the left (pot). Although in the end, it seems to me what the party really stood for was "live and let live." 

The other day on Twitter, this caught my eye:

I don't think a 'Guns & Dope Party' would work in the UK (satire or otherwise), as virtually nobody owns (or wants to own) a gun. Perhaps 'The Universal Basic Income, Legal Cannabis & Good Manners Party'?

— RAW semantics (@RAWsemantics) May 6, 2021

British politics is hard for an American to follow. I'm not claiming it's crazier than American politics (I don't see how that could be possible), I just don't follow it closely enough to understand it. I thought I kind of got the UBI and cannabis bit, but I was puzzled by third element of the new British party. So I asked "Why Good Manners?" and Brian explained, "To my mind, a tongue-in-cheek stereotype of 'conservative' Brit values -- just as 'gun nut' seems stereotype of U.S. 'NRA conservative'."

It's possible that the British may not always be able to make out how Americans think, either. In Cosmic Trigger, describing his job at Playboy magazine, RAW writes, "My job was editing the letters in the 'Playboy Forum,' and also writing the italicized replies in which the Playboy position was stated. This position is straight old-fashioned mind-your-own-business John Stuart Mill libertarianism, and (since that is my philosphy as well as Hefner's) I enjoyed the work immensely."

I noticed that in Daisy's Cosmic Trigger the Play book, this is changed to, "I take the mail and write the Playboy official response to it. Straight-up do-your-own-thing liberalism."

I wondered why Daisy had made the change. Should I read something into it?  I don't think John Stuart Mill wrote about cannabis, and I'm not sure about a UBI, either. Pretty sure he had good manners. I asked Daisy if she remembered why she made the change. 

"Hmmm no. Does he not say 'do your own thing' elsewhere in CT? Does seem an odd change. Maybe I thought the actor would trip over that many words. But I'm surprised I changed mind-your-own-business to do your own thing. And i suspect the switch from libertarianism to liberalism was a typo on my part... Hmmm one for the 2nd edition changes list!" she replied.

Well, no, I don't know that a fine writer like Daisy should change it. That wasn't what I meant. But I was still curious. "Thought maybe John Stuart Mill was unpopular," I wrote. 

"Clearly not popular enough!" she replied. 

Rasa on RAW and Olga

By Rasa
[Reprinted by permission from a Facebook posting -- The Management]

Bob's feathered friend Olga . . .

I first heard about Olga in September of 2003 when Robert Anton Wilson sent an email to his private email group (affectionately called the GroupMind). He was sending a reply in a discussion about how Al Franken had said, "God supports my politics." Bob, ignoring the satirical parody nature of Franken's anti-Bush remark. wrote:

• • •

Franken claims God supports his politics; so do such differing theo-politicians as Osama bin Laden, Jerry Falwell, Rush Limbaugh etc. who all claim God supports their politics. Aside from such self-serving claims, Diderot observed empirically that God always gives victory to the side with the biggest cannons. Napoleon, on hearing this, replied that in his experience God supports the best Intelligence service.

Any other empirical data on God's politics, anyone?

--Damned Old Crank

 • • •


Bob had taken to sometimes signing his emails, "Damned Old Crank." Some friends started referring to him as "DOC."

"Surely Franken was being sarcastic" a friend insisted. Bob wrote back:

• • •

But how can one judge such claims? I don't know who we shd consider Divinely inspired, who merely delusional/schizo, who running a con on the gullible, who making a joke, etc. That's why I want empirical data on who the Ancient Jester really supports……

--bob

• • •


"Ancient Jester" – I loved that. Various people offered their ideas on what they thought might be God's politics, and then Bob sent this reply:

• • •

If I announce [as I've considered] that God supports the Guns and Dope Party, how many of you will consider that

1. schizo to delusional

2. genuine Divine intervention

3. a con game

4. a hoax, satire, jape etc

How do you rank the similar claims of Monkey-Boy, Jerry Falwell, Son of Sam, the Tsars of Russia, the Tsars of USA, Osama bin Laden, the popes of Rome etc?

Anyway God has personally endorsed the GUNS AND DOPE PARTY and cursed Tsardom. He told me so, speaking through an ostrich named Olga who co-starred with Orson Welles in a thriller called SOUTHERN STAR. Those other guys are just jealous because the Voices don't speak to them and they have to fake it!

• • •


Bob had different names for President Bush. One of them was "Monkey Boy." About a month later, Bob announced in a GroupMind email that he was running for Governor of California as the Guns and Dope Party candidate. Soon after that Bob started describing some of his interactions with Olga. At one point he wrote:

• • •

Olga wants me to run for president next year, and I can't refuse. She's one persuasive bird, bi god.... Did you ever try arguing with a Trans-Human critter two feet taller than you, with a sharp beak yet????

 --bob

• • •


A few days later I was working with Bob's webmaster, Patrick Farley, and I had set up an online gift shop for the Guns and Dope Party. In emailing Bob and Patrick I gave them the shop's link and wrote,

"By leave of her majesty Tsaritsa Olga," Bob was unfamiliar with the obscure spelling of Tsarina that I had found and wrote the following:

• • •

I believe correct Rooshian is Tsarina, but Olga has a fey sense of humor and prefers Tsardine. Signori, YOU go and argue with her.

 --bob

• • •


It was about that time that Bob changed his email address, again. He changed his email address several times for various reasons over the years. This time, with Olga much on his mind, he changed his email address to: "olga666@rattlebrain.com."

Bob was a prolific emailer, sending out something interesting at least once a day. It was amusing during that period to check my mail and start seeing regular emails from Olga666! Check out Bob's thoughts on Olga from the Party's website.

Guns and Dope Party issues a statement

In the light of recent reports that at least one candidate is running for president as a member of the Guns and Dope Party, the party has issued a statement to clarify that it does not endorse any candidate. Here is the statement:

The GADP does not endorse any candidate claiming to run as the official GADP candidate. There is no official GADP candidate, except perhaps occasionally when Olga inexplicably decides to campaign for President of Multiverse. Despite the impressive detailed descriptions of plausible interstellar propulsion systems and the outrageous uniforms, we suspect she is not serious, but no one has actually asked.

The statement has been posted on the Guns and Dope Party website. That website is maintained by the Robert Anton Wilson Trust, along with the official RAW website and the Hilaritas Press, the trust's new publishing arm. I am told that the first three RAW reprints to be issued by Hilaritas will be out soon, but no date has been announced yet.

A Guns and Dope Party candidate [UPDATED]

Artwork promoting the Guns and Dope Party

The Guns and Dope Party has an announced candidate for president. White Lightning says he has filed with the FEC as a candidate. I have followed his Twitter account, which sometimes confuses me. Twitter may be confused, too, because when I followed @light_of_white, it recommended three "similar accounts": Arabia Now, from Saudi Arabia's U.S. embassy; Giggles ("Oops dropped me mums spaghetti") and bigballbumpty ("fuck all.")

Anyway, White Lightning's candidacy does not appear yet on the FEC's already long list of 2016 candidates for president (featuring Hillary Rodham Clinton, and also Dinesh Ravishanker, Mr. Ronald Reagan's Ghost and Hairy Jay-Mz MC Pawter of Griffyndor, among many others), but Mr. Lightning Tweeted a form showing that his filing has been confirmed.  Mr. Lightning also has released a record album.

A tipster wrote to the Guns and Dope Party website, and Richard Rasa of the  RAW Estate passed on the word, so I emailed several questions to the candidate, and he answered with one long statement, which I reproduce here.

Dear Tommy boi,

First off let me say thanks and I also would like to point out (you can put this in your article if you want) that I will answer some questions with a sort of odd twist that pertains to my fucked up persona.

I White Lightning, have spent a musical career basically pretending to be a human thats is comprised of all the social constructions that have been devised by americans in the form of racism, religion-based discrimination, and all around fucked up beliefs. The whole goal of White Lightning was to create a character so absurd yet would also make the listener take a good look and evaluation of their own life. I decided to run for president initially because I thought it could be a good album topic. However, the reason now is to show that even a candidate running under a party named "guns and dope party" has far better ideas than any other shitwad who actually has a chance of winning. Yes Hillary Donald and Jeb, I'm talking to you. I now run to promote the great ideas of my party and spread awareness that congress in fact is turning into a piece of shit. Though I initially stated my album was the inspiration to me running, I honestly couldn't care less how the sales do. White Lightning albums are literally based after what I thought cancer sounds like. The new motive is to fall second behind deez nuts in write ins as well as achieve my ultimate goal, start a Twitter war with at least one major fucker in congress. It's harder than you'd think. The guns and dope party literally is the most badass political party ever conceived. Its literally like if Abe Lincoln and Chuck Norris had the best sex of their lives and conceived a beautiful and promise filled political party that basically talks about how awesome ostriches and dope are. The number one thing that I actually and seriously agree with (to a limit if we are being serious) is the idea that people really should be able to do whatever the Fuck they want. I mean this not in a sense where I think people should be allowed to rape and murder people, but I believe that is people want to be gay, have abortions, smoke some dope, shoot off a gun(however, I will actually admit I believe that the gun registration process is a bit to shtty and easy in this country) marry a cat, or be a retard, we really should just fucking let them. I get really ticked off at issues with religious intervention because it's just a whole waste that only delays our progress as a society. Most of the bible preaching republican fuck boys haven't even read the damn book nor have they read or realized it's an out of date, sex and incest filled, shitty user of symbolism, and all around boring book. I'm also a registered Dudist Priest so if you want to join a religioun that promotes bowling, white Russian cocktails, and doing whatever the Fuck you want, join Dudeism. It's also free. I have problems with both democrats and republicans, but  the only candidate I see having any chance at being fairly decent is Joe Biden because he's like that fucking crazy uncle that is secretly a badass. And he's not even running yet. If any readers come across this interview, my main message is take time to look for a candidate that you actually want running your country, even if it's not a main candidate. Actually, especially if it's not a main candidate. Thank you.

UPDATE: After I wrote the above, I heard from BigBallBumpty, who writes, "Hey Tom,
It's the triple B!  You mentioned me on your latest post.  Me and White Lightning go WAAYYYY BACK (Proof: Build-a-Bear Workshop (ft. White Lightning), by BigBallBumpty).  We basically invented a subgenre of hip hop and fuck.  If his answer to your questions were too weird (idk), ask me or some shit.  I plan to be vice president under his position.  My submission has been confirmed.  AMA I guess.  We do indeed have motives."

The track he mentions isn't bad and is a free download. It's from the album, Fuck You, General Tso. 

Election 2012: The Libertarians won

My observation that the Libertarians won the 2012 election may seem counterintuitive, given that Gary Johnson performed only slightly better than most past  Libertarian Party nominees, but nonetheless it is true. Libertarians won stunning victories on several important ballot initiatives.

Marijuana was legalized in two states, Washington and Colorado. It's hard to say whether that's more amazing than the fact that same sex marriage was legalized in three states. (A ban on gay marriage that would have been placed in a state's constitution lost in a fourth state.)

Libertarians didn't win every ballot initiative, but won more than their share; Reason's Hit and Run blog is keeping a running account.

I got interested in the  Libertarian movement in the 1970s, not coincidentally perhaps about the time I was reading Illuminatus! for the first time. Libertarians have long supported gay rights and opposed the "war on some drugs." I am here to tell you those were not mainstream positions in the 1970s.

New Guns and Dope party Web site


The folks who maintain Robert Anton Wilson's official site have announced a new Web site for the Guns and Dope Party, the banner that RAW used when he ran for governor of California. It's here. It's a very libertarian party.