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.”
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”.
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”.
Matt Yglassias tweet: “In 1996, Bob Dole argued that smoking pot was the new nuclear war”: The Living Room Candidate - 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.
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.
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.
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.