Longtime leftist activist Dana Beal said at a rally near the White House on Friday evening that anti-Trump protesters are being violently suppressed, just like when he was a “smoke-in” marijuana protester during the 1960s.
“We remember there were some hard-hats, they called them Reagan Democrats later, and they decided to beat up the anti-war protesters down on Wall Street. It was a lot like Donald Trump … today. Which is, if you disagree with these people, they just may beat you up,” said Beal, speaking to a small group of protesters waving marijuana-themed banners at Lafayette Square on Friday.
The protest was organized by DCMJ, a local advocacy group demanding that whoever is in the Oval Office take executive action to take cannabis off the list of Schedule One drugs. Some of the speakers noted that President Obama has failed to take action favoring their position, even though Obama himself was known to have been an enthusiastic user in his youth.
DCMJ co-founder Adam Eidinger wore a Bernie Sanders sticker on his jacket to the protest, and noted that he refused to cancel the event even though the White House was briefly on lockdown after a security incident.
With many in the small crowd wearing bright red liberty caps like French Revolutionaries, Beal argued that the current president and many of the candidates are too “conservative” when it comes to legalization.
In describing a “future under Hillary Clinton,” the 69-year-old weed smoker said, “I guess it will be, you know, like two degrees more conservative than Obama.”
He said whether the future president is Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump, “the likelihood that they can refuse to change the status of marijuana for another four years … is about zero.”
Beal said he and his fellow advocates have openly smoked the Schedule One drug for “about 46 years,” and said such non-violent action is largely responsible for changing attitudes toward marijuana.
“Smoke-ins are a good idea and should happen more frequently,” he said.
