Who is behind the opposition to November's ballot proposal of Proposition 19, legalizing, controlling, and taxing cannabis?
Well, at a minimum, a whopping 455 supporters on Facebook and the grand total of 77 following on Twitter. Combined, that's roughly 75% of my graduating high school class.
]
That's about 0.45% of the total population of Costa Mesa.
To put it in perspective, advocates of Yes on 19 have garnered 151,348 Facebook “likes,” and have a following of 3,158 on Twitter.
Admittedly, just
how relevant of a public-opinion barometer social networking sites can be is highly debatable. Will 151,348 show up to the polls on Nov. 2
merely because they tepidly “like” the cause on Facebook?
Yes
and No on 19 have run a similar cyber-campaign: both tout
self-affirming statistics and polls, both list dozens of sympathetic
public officials throughout the state, both promise a safe, stable
society.
But opposition forces are yet to spark a flame in the online community with more than a handful of supporters.
According an April 2010 SurveyUSA poll, though, the disparity in public opinion is not as colossal as it seems.
According to the survey, 56% of Californian citizens support the legalization of marijuana and 42% are opposed.
Until “No on 19” can conjure up some form of remedy for their ailing online support, legalization-opponents must hope that social networking sites aren't a quintessential resource in modern politics.
