Who Put the LSD in Willie Nelson’s Stash?

My whole family loves Willie Nelson. One of my mom’s favorite songs of his was "On the Road Again." When I was in college, there was a liquor store on the outskirts of the town that used a parodied version of "On the Road Again" as an ad for their store. He is a cultural icon. I put him on the same level as Dolly Parton. The entire U.S. jokes about his marijuana use, his problems with the IRS in the early '90s, and how he just keeps going. He is 93 and shows no signs of slowing down. He is known for a lot of things, but political endorsements are not one of them. That has not stopped him. In 2018, he endorsed Beto O’Rourke in the midterm elections. Just a few days ago, he endorsed Beto 0.5, i.e., Texas State rep. James Talarico (D-50th District). This endorsement came after Talarico disappeared from the campaign trail for fourteen days.

(UPDATE: Talarico was spotted at Austin City Limits Festival. As the poster put it, if you’re a Democrat and have to campaign in Austin, your campaign isn’t going well.)

Related: James Talarico=Beto 0.5

Now, inasmuch as Willie has probably pickled and smoked his brain into petrification, I do wonder whatever possessed him to endorse Talafreako. As little as I know of the man, I don’t think he believes in many of the things that Talarico supports, but he might. I told a friend about Nelson’s endorsement of Talarico. She looked at me and said, “Who put the LSD in Willie’s stash?” I agree with her. My entire life, not just my adult life, when I hear Willie Nelson’s name, my first thought is “What did he do now?”

My personal favorite story is how the Louisiana State Police pulled over his tour bus in Louisiana near the Breaux Bridge, in 2006, for a routine commercial vehicle inspection. As the story goes, when the bus door opened, a cloud of marijuana smoke rolled out the door. Upon further inspection, the state trooper found one and a half pounds of marijuana and a smaller amount of psychedelic mushrooms. Everyone on the bus claimed ownership of the drugs, claiming they were for “personal use.” Everyone was cited for “simple possession,” and Nelson and his manager were fined $1,024. Twenty years ago! Nelson is still smoking marijuana at 93. Is this someone you want to listen to for political advice?

Looking at Talarico’s campaign, I can see why Nelson is endorsing him. Talarico wants to legalize marijuana for adults. He also wants to release anyone serving jail time solely for drug offenses. No wonder Nelson likes him. In his endorsement, Nelson states that he’s gotten to know Talarico, says he’s a good man, and will be a good senator. I have to wonder just how well Nelson knows Talarico, and if wanting children to “transition” makes him a “good man.” It doesn’t to me. Nelson lives just to the west of Austin, and has probably met, if not talked to, Talarico. How much he might remember of those conversations remains to be seen.

Nelson is an ardent Democrat. He has backed Democrat candidates for decades, going back to Jimmy Carter. He also backed people such as Bernie Sanders. I wonder if Bernie has railed against Nelson for owning more than one home. Nelson’s latest campaign is against data centers that power artificial intelligence, calling them “loud, water thieving” and “light polluting.”

Talarico agrees with him. Talarico is looking to create tighter restrictions on where and how data centers can be built. Reading what Talarico says, some of it sounds good, but he is a politician and politicians lie all the time. Of course, in Nelson’s case, it doesn’t matter what happens with data centers; he’s got so much land, none of them would ever bother him. Talarico has also criticized Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) campaign for accepting donations from data centers. If I were Talarico, I might lay off the criticism of donors, considering that most of his donors are not Texas-based.

I also wonder why Nelson’s endorsement was announced now. Was it done to take the focus off of Talarico’s two-week disappearance? If so, it doesn’t appear to have done much to take the focus away. If not done for that reason, then why announce it now? Why not announce it earlier or later? Is there a specific reason for announcing the endorsement with less than a month to go before the general election? Or is this Willie being Willie? I do not have an answer to that question.

In one of my earlier articles, I say that Texas is a weird state, and that Texas politics are even weirder. In 2006, in a five-way race for the governor’s office, Kinky Friedman, lead singer of Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, ran for governor as an independent, with slogans such as “Why the Hell Not?” and “My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy.” He came in fourth place with 12.43 percent of the vote, finishing in front of Libertarian James Werner. I feel certain that Nelson probably endorsed Friedman. That’s the weirdness of Texas politics.

However, while Texas lends herself to weird, it tries not to choose too often those who are completely unsuitable for office, but it happens. It happened with Talarico. It will happen again. It will continue to happen until the Texas Democrat Party starts looking for people who might actually have a chance in winning statewide. That hasn’t happened in decades.

I do agree with Nelson on one thing in his ad: you should vote. Just not for James “I’m a HUGE fake” Talarico.

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