It doesn't matter much who's president. Yet we attentively watch them do things; watch them speeching, screeching and preaching. Watch them scratch their nuts in public and blow policy papers out their asses. 

But how much should we really pay attention to them, in the sense of minding them, in the sense of doing what they say? 

Whether it’s Hillary or Donald next, can’t we just turn down the volume?

Take this popular story on the history of America:

Powerful people in a far off land to the east said they wanted to control us. These eastern rulers wanted our money and our loyalties. 

But a bunch of cannabis farmers, growing hemp and smoking trees, said to get the fuck out of here.

Two times this happened! 

The first time was when those old white-haired hemp farmers and dope smokers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, told king George III back east in England to eat a dick. They legalized America.

And the second time was when Colorado dope smokers Mason Tvert and Brian Vicente, with legions of basement growers and back alley dealers, told king president George W. Bush back east in Washington to kindly fuck off. The dope smokers eventually legalized cannabis (more or less). 

Colorado moved the national debate on cannabis. And we did it by ignoring decades of presidential “this-is-your-brain-on-fried-eggs” jabber. We trusted our own senses. We vaped trees and, yes, we felt our brains sizzle — but not in a bad way. And we asked ourselves, “Why is this stuff illegal again?” It was a colossal victory. Smokers are free instead of paranoid, dealers are businessmen instead of criminals, and the Mexican cartels are weakened instead of flourishing. History will toast us with Sweetwater Mellow Mint THC tea. 

All I’m saying is that maybe we’ll be better off if we don’t listen too much to what presidents say. If the next president asks us to go to war, we don’t have to go. If she/he asks us to rat on our illegal immigrant friends, we don’t have to do it. But even Obama, chill as he is, said in 2004 that, “I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.” I’m glad we ignored that. Now, Hillary might be the one to re-schedule cannabis. The president is following us, not the other way around.

Let's watch em a little less and do a little more. 

So much can be done on the local level. Whether it’s lowering the speed limit near playgrounds or planting flowers to help the bees or buying local food in your town. Those little things matter. And there’s power everywhere. 

Our own moral and ideological compasses aren’t broken; our ears can still hear what’s going down on the street. And they’ll tune in more acutely if the president’s voice on the TV gets lowered just a couple of notches, and we watch what they’re doing a little less, and we do what they say a little less often.