11-25-2023, 01:34 PM
(11-24-2023, 06:30 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Meh, I'm skeptical. The GOP's voters are so loyal to the R that they could blatantly overturn the will of the people and their voters would convince themselves it's for the best and keep them in power as soon as they have the chance.
Republican politicians outperform republican policies and democratic policies outperform democratic policies. In this case the voters backed the liberal policy but the state will still back the conservative politicians who want to stifle or undo it. It's totally by the bizarre book for Ohio to vote to legalize marijuana and then turn around and vote for conservative politicians who will undo exactly what they voted for.
Issue 1 and Issue 2 passed by 13+ points, but even if the GOP overturns both the state is going to Trump by 10+ points.
They might be loyal to the GOP, but they aren't always loyal to individual Republicans. Paying a price due to thwarting the will of the voters doesn't necessarily mean losing to Dems in the next election. It's much more likely that a right wing pro-weed candidate picks that kind of rep off in the primary season.
TBH, there's probably not a shortage of that species of Republican. Even in MAGA circles you have pro weed reps. Gaetz is actually pretty outspoken about it.
In time, I believe pot legalization will prevail due to eventual lack of interest from opponents. Anti-legalization is a really stupid political hill to die on. The risk of looking out of touch is relatively high while the reward for going all-in against it is minimal. Too much of the country is in favor of it and the cat is already out of the bag. As with abortion and gambling, once state or federal governments get to the business of taking rights away or loosening regulations, voters start paying attention. Not many people like government restricting their choices.
