How Marijuana Could Split the Tea Party

[RainDog]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/08/how-marijuana-could-split-the-tea-party/60921/

Via The Atlantic Monthly

Marijuana legalization has gained steam in the last year and a half, and it's becoming an issue in multiple states. A handful will vote on medical marijuana ballot initiatives this year, and in California, Proposition 19 would allow counties to legalize marijuana outright, taxing and regulating it more or less like alcohol. The California measure appears to have a reasonable shot at success: internal and SurveyUSA polling have shown it in the lead, while the more reputable Field Research has shown Prop. 19 trailing 48% to 44%. If it passes, it will shock many people who haven't considered legalization of marijuana to be a remote possibility in this country; President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will have to decide whether to uphold federal drug laws or allow the will of California's voters to stand; marijuana will explode as a national topic of discussion.

The issues at play happen to mesh perfectly with the Tea Party's extant ideological divides. Beneath the movement's strict focus on fiscal matters, libertarianism and social conservatism are the two dominant leanings that most readily oppose each other. The Tea Party is an amalgam of Ron Paul supporters and libertarians, mixed in with disaffected Bush voters whose personal views are grounded firmly in social conservatism.

Marijuana seems like as good an issue as any to bring these ideological poles into conflict. Libertarians support looser drug laws as an expression of their most basic principle--less government involvement in private lives; social conservatives and traditionalists react viscerally to drug legalization as a descent into societal depravity. In broad terms, libertarians and social conservatives couldn't see marijuana more differently.

On top of that, marijuana is becoming a states' rights issue. The Obama administration has enacted a policy of deference to state policies on medical marijuana, and if California's Prop. 19 passes in 2010, or if a similar measure passes in California or elsewhere in 2012, the subsequent Obama/Holder decision over what to do about it will inevitably call into question whether the federal government should (constitutionally, it certainly can) supersede the decision of state voters.

I'd love to see whether the Dick Armey comes down on legalization. That's when you'll know who really controls their "movement."