# Legalized Marijuana cost Republicans the election. Discuss **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 3, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804 "2012-12-03T00:39:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/41 "2012-12-04T04:25:15Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Perhaps the Republicans can have a hearing about marijuana. If they do it like they do women’s reproductive rights, all members and all witnesses would never have even seen a joint in their entire lives. Reminds me of when Dan Quayle was stumping for the War On Drugs. He said that he had never had marijuana, nor had he ever been someplace where it was being smoked, and a standup comedian asked “Just what section of the populace do you claim to represent, and do they want to arrest me?” The answers to which, at the time, were “a majority” and “yes.” ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/42 "2012-12-04T05:19:53Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > …The point is, that legalization of marijuana should have been a Republican war cry. > It’s about personal freedom of choice, and about states’ rights. I went to a “far right wing” college, which (now that the 'Pubbies have swerved to Tea Party territory) seems more like a Libertarian school, now. They were in favor of legalizing marijuana (even back in the late 60s) as part of their “war cry” of personal freedom of choice, and limited government. Conservatives like William F. Buckley were often on campus, advocating policies like legalization. But that was before the fundies took over the party. Buckley and “personal freedom” now looks pretty pinko to the Republican “base”. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/43 "2012-12-04T05:37:18Z")
> [@digs](#): > > (even back in the late 60s) as part of their “war cry” of personal freedom of choice, and limited government. > > Conservatives like William F. Buckley were often on campus, advocating policies like legalization. But that was before the fundies took over the party. Buckley and “personal freedom” now looks pretty pinko to the Republican “base”. Your saying Buckley was on your campus in the 60’s advocating legalization? I’m pretty sure he was a supporter of anti-drug laws until 1990 or so. And even then, his arguments were that the anti-drug laws didn’t work, not that they were against “personal freedom”. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/44 "2012-12-04T07:19:44Z")
Matt Yglassias tweet: “In 1996, Bob Dole argued that smoking pot was the new nuclear war”: [The Living Room Candidate - Commercials - 1996 - The Threat](http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1996/the-threat) The narrator talks about “Drugs”. But check out the boy with the pipe at the end of the ad, if you don’t think that marijuana fell under that category of opprobrium. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/45 "2012-12-04T08:41:41Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Are they the same angry old men that want to control a woman’s uterus? Now that they’re pot smoking liberals, they claim they want to control the uterus of women because they empathise with dysmenorrhoea and seek to find a cure. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/46 "2012-12-04T09:29:05Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > The part of the party base that thinks states should manage their own affairs without interference from Washington, and also the part that thinks (adult) individuals should be free to make choices for themselves. > > Am I wrong in thinking these are Republican values? > > Edit- also the part of the base that abhors spending tax dollars busting people in far-way places. I agree with others in the thread: Yes, you are wrong to think these are Republican values. Libertarian Gary Johnson got more than a million votes; I hope this number continues to grow. BTW, do you really think the GOP abhorred spending tax dollars in far-away places like Iraq? “Freedom” is rather ambiguous, IMO. Aren’t the freedom to strike and the freedom to hire scabs and guards to harass picketers at odds? Which does the GOP support? In Republican Florida we have the freedom to carry a gun and shoot unarmed teens, but I’ll venture many Europeans feel a sense of “freedom” that can they can walk their streets at night without feeling threatened. ---
**Author:** ![LaughingMoon93](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecb155/32.png) [@LaughingMoon93](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaughingMoon93)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804/47 "2013-04-16T08:46:31Z")
i don’t know why politicians think people are stupid. each party finds out first what interest the people, then they spit a few words that they think you would like to hear. once they find out what that particular group cares about, they pick that particular subject to debate about., its all play on words, this is the oldest trick in the book, you find out whats important to each community, then pretend thats what you are fighting for; so that the person votes for you. how obvious. wake up people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalized-marijuana-cost-republicans-the-election-discuss/642804.md?page=2)