Politics & Power Quote by Jack Herer

Herer opens with the most disarming credential in American political argument: the teenage soldier. At 17, he’s not just patriotic; he’s legally and emotionally all-in, betting his body on the promise that “America” equals “rights” equals “freedom.” That setup isn’t nostalgia. It’s a rhetorical booby trap. By establishing bona fides inside the civic religion, he preemptively blocks the lazy rebuttal that critics are simply anti-American.

The pivot - “But today” - is the engine. Herer frames disillusionment as a forced conclusion, not a fashionable pose. “My government is lying” and “my president...is a criminal” aren’t measured claims; they’re deliberately incendiary, meant to rupture the respectful distance Americans are trained to keep from power. The subtext is that the real betrayal isn’t protest; it’s the state’s abuse of trust, sold under the language of liberty.

Context matters. As a cannabis legalization and hemp evangelist, Herer lived in the crosshairs of federal policing and moral panic, watching “freedom” get selectively applied. Naming “George Bush” places the quote in an era when war, secrecy, and expansive executive power were common currency - and when dissent was routinely painted as disloyalty. Calling a president “criminal” is less courtroom accusation than moral indictment: if leaders can launder violence and surveillance through patriotic slogans, then the sacred language of freedom becomes propaganda.

Herer’s intent is clear: reclaim patriotism from obedience, and argue that belief in America may require disbelief in its rulers.