"The Body" Politic

Minnesota gov. Jesse Ventura slams Republicans, Democrats, and big government.

Jonathan Rauch from the April 1999 issue

(Page 2 of 5)

Reason: Doesn't that include a question about legalizing drugs?

Ventura: Yeah.

Reason: Are you for legalizing drugs?

Ventura: Personally, not politically. When you say "legalizing," I would use a better term of "decriminalizing." I'm for giving the addict a way to get it so he doesn't have to go out and hold up the 7-Eleven store to get enough money to go buy it at these inflated, ridiculous prices that prohibition causes. I'll tell you why I think the war on drugs is a failure: I believe it because my mom told me so.

Reason: Your mother told you so?

Ventura: She lived through liquor prohibition. She told me that the war on drugs today is identical to that. All it does is create a way for criminals to make money, which is exactly what alcohol prohibition did in the 1920s. It created a source for Al Capone and other organized crime figures to become extremely wealthy. They had a popular commodity they could sell on the black market, the same as you have today. If you want to put the gangs out of business, then you have to do something with their trade. You have to hit them economically.

Reason: You made a distinction between a personal view and a political view. What do you mean by that?

Ventura: My feeling about drugs is not a political view because most Minnesotans probably disagree with me. Because they disagree with me, I'm not going to push it. But I certainly will speak my opinion of it and try to change minds. But the voters can disagree with my opinion, you know.

During the campaign, I got into a lot of trouble over prostitution and drugs. The media asked me, "Do you support legalizing drugs and prostitution?" and my answer was, "Absolutely not." But then I went on to state that I was open-minded enough that I would certainly look at other alternatives to what we're doing.

Reason: I've interviewed a lot of politicians, and they don't talk about personal views quite so freely.

Ventura: I'm different. My view was that if I didn't get elected, I'd go back to my old talk radio job and do what I always did in the private sector. When the press covered my views on drugs and prostitution, they said that I destroyed myself, that my campaign was over. But people didn't care a bit. They felt that I was a guy who's got guts enough to bring things up. They like someone who's not afraid, who doesn't cower in the corner and go, "Oh, if I bring this up I'll never get elected."

That's one reason I fired back at Hillary Clinton. She came out here the Saturday before the election to campaign for [Democratic candidate] Skip Humphrey. She made a big speech and appeared all over the state, stumping for Skip. She made a statement to the people of Minnesota that it was time to end the side-show carnival act, which was me. The press came to me and said, "How do you feel about the first lady saying that it was time for Minnesotans to put aside the side-show carnival act?" I said, "I think it would be more appropriate if the first lady worried more about leaving Bill home alone. Because it seems whenever she leaves, Bill gets into mischief."

Reason: How did that go over?

Ventura: Ask her. It didn't hurt me, though. I guess I'll find out how she felt about it in February, when I go to Washington for the big governors' meeting.

Reason: One of your most memorable campaign slogans was, "You can't legislate stupidity." What did you mean by that?