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Comment by limagnolia

1 day ago

Mormons voted strongly to legalize MJ in Utah. Maybe your politician is just an odd man out?

edit: Well, I should note the Utah vote was only for "medical" MJ.

9 comments

limagnolia

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cogman10  1 day ago

It got through via a ballot initiative. It wouldn't have been passed by the legislators in UT without that.

That's why the guy in my state, C. Scott Grow, has also been fighting to make ballot initiatives harder. He's terrified that an MJ initiative would make it's way in that way.

  • rhcom2  1 day ago

    Republicans in Utah are also trying to remove the power from ballot initiatives because they're upset the Utahans passed an anti-gerrymandering initiative.

    • mothballed  1 day ago

      Yaeh this is a thing states do. South Dakota went in cahoots with the courts to cancel the ballot initiative to legalize weed, and California went in cahoots with the courts to sabotage prop 8 (the banning of gay marriage).

      2 replies →

  • ribosometronome  14 hours ago

    > isn't seen by politicians as a motivating vote driver ... It got through via a ballot initiative

    Those two seem a little at odds. People are going to vote against it, but not when it's specifically on the ballot?

    • cogman10  13 hours ago

      It's not.

      If 90% of party A supporters support the issue, and 70% of party B supporters support and issue and the election is close to 50/50 with B in power. B putting forward the issue can make them lose the next election because that 30% will either withhold their vote or vote for the other party.

      But if that same issue is a ballot measure, then the 90% of A voters and 70% of B voters will overwhelmingly pass it.

      This is what I mean by a motivating issue. Nobody will withhold their vote if MJ stays illegal. But there are certainly people (mostly religious) that absolutely will withhold their vote if a politician makes it legal. Even if that's a super popular move.

      That's why pretty popular things aren't done. It's also why unpopular things can be easily done. If nobody withholds their vote because of the "send the kids to the mines" act (because they are happy about the mandatory Bible study), then a politician can get away with really horrible things so long as they make the core of their voters happy. After all, you aren't going to let the other guy win now are you.

      It's what's broken about parties and FPTP elections.