I have been saying for quite some time that the Democrats would be using marijuana prohibition as a pivot in at least the next two elections given that the Republican base is avowedly prohibitionist. I expected the Democrats to start in on the issue this summer. They must be hurting badly because they have started six months earlier than I expected. President Obama says:
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Obama said. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.” When Remnick pressed on whether marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, Obama thought about it for a while and said it was less dangerous “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer,” but emphasized that “it’s not something I encourage.” The president expressed particular concern with the disproportionate number of arrests for marijuana possession among minorities. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said, adding that individual users shouldn’t be locked up “for long stretches of jail time.”
Obama expressed some support for the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, noting that “it’s important for it to go forward.”
This will definitely cut into Republican gains if they don’t smarten up. Well OK. What are the odds of the stupid party smartening up? Given their base there is nothing in it for them. You can’t ask a man to wise up when his position depends on him remaining stupid.
Which is a paraphrase of Upton Sinclair, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his livelihood depends on not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
In any case there is a lot for Democrats to gain by working against Prohibition.
H/T Reason Magazine
Comments
23 responses to “It Begins”
I don’t think the Republicans’ position on marijuana matters electorally, and that’s not the fault of conservatives. The same goes for most social issues. No matter which way Republicans come down on the issue, there’s very few people who would actually change their vote to Republican over it.
The pull of the gummint check is very, very strong. As is the push of social confirmation.
I don’t think the Republicans’ position on marijuana matters electorally…
It will definitely matter with younger voters who have been drifting away from Obama. A turn on pot use will help hold them and bring them to the polls. It is a very smart move.
This just sucks, big time. Republicans are already have trouble attracting younger voters, and they are now sure to stiffen their opposition to “potheads” and redouble their support for the WoD. This will make it doubly hard to support them, and make a mockery of their supposed stance against too much government in people’s lives.
Of course, it’s great news for the Dems.
The Culture War sucks, more than ever.
[…] if I needed a reminder of how much the Culture War sucks, M. Simon’s post did it for me. I have been saying for quite some time that the Democrats would be using marijuana […]
Frank,
Not any of the young voters I talk to. They may stay home, some of them. But they won’t vote Republican, no matter what. It’s literally unthinkable for them.
Neil,
Of course they won’t vote Republican. The Republicans have been fighting a culture war and they lost.
This move by Obama is an attempt to bring out the kids for the mid-terms. It might work if the Democrats can maintain unity on the issue.
Also see Eric’s latest:
http://classicalvalues.com/2014/01/does-mommy-really-want-to-make-daddy-end-this-war/
Maricopa republican party just censored sen. mccain for not being a big enough nazi! Democratic party has big tent we even take dopers and right to lifers(dem. senator from pennsylvania is pro-life!) By the way three other arizona county republican partys have censored sen. mccain for not attending enough cross burnings or progroms for mexicans!
Neil, I won’t disagree with you about younger people voting Republican, but they will definitely register and go to the polls if they believe that a major political party will end the insanity of marijuana prosecution.
I know adults in their 40’s who registered for the first time to vote for Obama because they believed he would end don’t ask don’t tell, which he did. He has locked up the gay vote by that and his turn around on gay marriage. If people believe, even mistakenly, that he will wind down the war on drugs, and actually decriminalize marijuana use, he will salvage his sorry presidency.
My advice to Republicans, which they will not take, is to drop social issues period, focus all their attention on the miserable economy and unemployment, and admit that the war on drugs is a miserable failure and should be ended.
As others have said the Republicans are hopeless. We need a new party.
Well Frank, the Republicans have pretty much done as you ask–they’ve stopped talking about social issues to focus on taxes, spending, and regulation. But here you all are, still bitching at them. Winning’s not good enough for you–you want conservatives to grovel at your feet.
That’s why the Republicans are going to lose in November, and why we’re all going to the poorhouse. In a cattle car.
I wasn’t aware that Republicans had stopped talking about social issues. Limbaugh, Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Huckabee haven’t.
And we have the Duckers deep in teh gay.
My daughter is visiting for a few days before heading off to France (last semester of college) and we had a very interesting conversation about gays etc.
I doubt many in the Republican base (gay marriage is an abomination) could have such a conversation. They certainly don’t keep it out of politics.
I was having a conversation about Obama’s pot announcement with some conservatives and you know what the focus of one was? The harms Obama mentioned.
This is a direct quote from the conversation:
“It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,” he said.(obama)
Actually more than one focused on maintaining prohibition.
I knew you guys wouldn’t be able to refrain from proving my point for me.
Talk radio shows? A frickin’ reality TV actor? You won’t support a Republican as long as you can hear a single conservative voice out there that disagrees with you.
Look at it this way–if you persist, either the Republicans will lose or they will win. If they lose, that’s the end of economic freedom in the United States (and likely several other freedoms besides). If they win, they’ve won without organized help from libertarians and have no need to listen to our point of view. You’ve chosen the one course of action that is guaranteed to result in failure.
I’ll support Rand Paul. Grudgingly.
Last year I voted Libertarian. Where my heart is.
The Republicans want my vote? End Prohibition. Because that is how I’m voting this year.
The Republicans are just as much in favor of the nanny state as the Democrats. Just with a different face.
You do realize that American Prohibition is due to the genius of the Progressives. And now Republicans are its last bastion of support. Nothing new.
==
The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types — the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution. — G.K. Chesterton
[…] post is due in part to the discussion at It Begins. Print PDF Categories: Uncategorized 0 […]
If they[Republicans] lose, that’s the end of economic freedom in the United States…
If Republicans were focused on and consistent advocates of economic freedom, it would be worth putting up with their failure in other areas. Unfortunately, even in this area they have let us down. We don’t need to rehash Medicare Part D, or TARP, but they are big items that alone prove Republicans aren’t really free market advocates. Wasn’t Nixon responsible for the abomination of EPA? And wasn’t Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan the author of the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 that banned incandescent light bulbs?
The Republicans have become little more than Democrat lite. I really wish it was otherwise, but that is the reality.
From Rand’s “The Anatomy of Compromise”:
In any conflict between two men (or two groups) who hold the same basic principles, it is the more consistent one who wins.
This is why liberal Republican’s lose to the more consistent Democrats, because they hold the same basic principles. I believe it was the determining factor in Romney’s loss. People believed that he would be no better than Obama.
In any collaboration between two men (or two groups) who hold different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational one who wins.
Those Republicans who have opposite principles, like Boehner & Paul Ryan, who try to compromise also lose.
The struggle for the future of America and freedom is taking place within the Republican Party, and the libertarians are losing. (Sorry, Mr. Glenn Reynolds, but it’s too late. We need a new party.)
Like Simon, I would still vote for Rand Paul, and even go for Ted Cruz. Most of the others aren’t worth the powder and lead…
Frank,
Quite correct. Romney Care made me think that Romney was not serious about repealing ObamaCare. So I voted Libertarian. Not that it mattered in Illinois.
If the Republicans stuck strictly to rational economics I believe they couldn’t lose. If they want their pogroms they will not get my vote.
Ditto here. I voted Libertarian because it didn’t matter in California.
So why do I throw my weight to the side of the evilest of them? Because in their hearts they know they are evil. The worst thing about the Republicans is that they are evil but believe they are good. Which brings to mind C.S. Lewis.
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. CS Lewis
Fifty-four years ago I remember the Kennedy/Nixon debates. One of the main points of argument was over health care for the elderly, what became Medicare under Johnson. Nixon and the Republicans supported a subsidy program similar to RomneyCare or Obamacare while Kennedy backed the King-Anderson proposal, a forerunner of Medicare. It was over this particular item that Nixon got the nickname “Me Too” because he conceded every point Kennedy made, but preferred a “different approach” which was tried under Kennedy and failed.
The Republicans have flat out been partners with the Democrats for over 50 years in destroying our freedom. With the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, Homeland Security, and the final straw the NSA collection centers, they are in some ways worse than Democrats.
[…] appears to be a very large break out politically with respect to marijuana since President Obama came out against prohibition. Harry Reid said in the last week that medical marijuana is alright by me. All […]
[…] It Begins I described how the Democrats might use the relaxation or the prospect of ending marijuana […]