I just read the same article and I agree that this is huge news
Rand Paul's first amendment is literally THE EXACT SAME as the Democrat-led McClintock-Polis amendment combined with the Democrat-led Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment
Even the wording is nearly identical
This is literal and political plagiarism
And so is his second amendment, a nearly exact replica of a Democratic bill to protect banks working with MJ from federal interference, which like both Rohrabacher-Blumenauer and McClintock-Polis, has been repeatedly blocked by the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee from being voted on in the house
One logical interpretation of this is that this is just Rand Paul doing his libertarian pro-MJ thing
Another is that Sessions' recusal of the Cole Memo was a political setup to get everybody riled up about the federal government interfering with MJ-legal states 2 weeks before the budget was due to be extended, giving the Republicans an opportunity to steal the pro-MJ mantle from the Democrats by inserting MJ-protecting amendments into the renewal of the federal budget bill
While the Democrats are winning political points by continuing to support the pro-MJ sentiment of the voting public in 2018, the Republicans on the House Rules Committee then block McClintock-Polis from being voted on in the house
As the public gets angrier and angrier with respect to the Republican anti-pot sentiment and disrespect of states' rights, now the Republicans can come in and save the day
All of a sudden, it is the Republicans standing up for states' rights to legalize marijuana, which is an issue that has an approval rating of 70%
And now that the Republicans are suddenly not so anti-MJ anymore, they can also be seen as supporting the medical marijuana legalization movement, which is consistent with 90% of the voting public, and even the recreational marijuana legalization movement, which is consistent with 60%-65% of the voting public
Rand Paul steals the pro-marijuana mantle from the Democrats in a brilliant political maneuver on the part of the Republicans
Now the Republicans will get an immense amount of credit for protecting states' marijuana laws and overruling Sessions and the DOJ, and in doing so, will instantly get on the right side of this now front-burner political topic before the 2018 elections -- social issues are big issues for all voters, but particularly for those Independent voters who tend to determine the outcome of elections
If that is too conspiratorial for you, here is a third logical interpretation of Rand Paul's amendments
This wasn't a political setup the entire time, but when the Republicans saw the surprising power of the public pushback on the part of both liberal AND conservative voters (and the pushback from Republican Congresspeople as well) in reaction to Sessions' recission of the Cole Memo, they reacted politically by blocking McClintock-Polis and hijacking both Rohrabacher-Blumenauer and McClintock-Polis from the Democrats as their way to get in front of the strong Pro-MJ sentiment ahead of the 2018 elections
We will know whether the 1st interpretation or the 2nd/3rd are true if these amendments are permitted to be voted on with the budget
I'm not sure Republican political operatives are crafty enough for the 2nd, so I am leaning towards the more reactionary 3rd interpretation
Things might have just gotten really, really interesting
Definitely stay tuned
VATE & SIPC
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