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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 26 2020, @08:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the plans-going-up-in-smoke dept.

Trump Is Petrified That Pro-Weed Forces Will Roast Him:

The president and some of his team, already obsessed with the potential drop-off of various demographic groups that make up his battered coalition, have begun openly worrying that the drive to legalize or decriminalize marijuana might hurt him and fellow Republicans at the ballot box.

According to two GOP strategists who've independently discussed the topic with Trump this year, the president believes that inclusion of marijuana initiatives on state ballots could supercharge turnout for voters who lean toward Democratic candidates and causes. The president, according to one of the sources, asked for updates on critical swing-states that could see such ballot measures in the 2020 elections.

"The president is keenly aware of how presidential elections [nowadays]... can be won at the margins," one of the Republican strategists said. "The pot issue is one of many that he thinks could be a danger... He once told me it would be very 'smart' for the Democrat[ic] Party to get as many of these on the ballot as they could."

Decades ago, Trump had publicly advocated full-on legalization, arguing that "we're losing badly the war on drugs," and that "you have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars." During this iteration of his political identity, he put the blame on politicians who "don't have any guts" to tackle drug legalization.

But by his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had come out "strongly" against legal weed. By the time he reached the Oval Office, he was enthusiastically proposing executing drug dealers by firing squad. And his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, revoked an Obama-era guidance that discouraged the feds from prosecuting marijuana-based criminal cases in states where it was legal.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday August 26 2020, @11:14AM (3 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Wednesday August 26 2020, @11:14AM (#1042069)

    That just goes to show how much trust you can put in anything politicians says. They don't have any real conviction, just the conviction-du-jour that furthers their agenda - which is, and only is, grab more power and more money.

    I'm surprised anybody bothers to vote for any of those liars...

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @12:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @12:59PM (#1042103)

    That's perfect logic! This guy makes me sick. Don't vote for the other guy. And marijuana makes you gay. Don't show up, ya hear?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:30PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:30PM (#1042148)

    If you ever changed your opinion on something from decades ago, you're a hypocrite. Solve your own hypocrisy first before calling out others, lest you look like a fool.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:56PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:56PM (#1042170) Journal

      Changing your opinion over the course of a decade is normal. Trump will completely reverse his own position within a single sentence!