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US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

bbc.co.uk

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Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#51

Post by nrclark »

t-writescode wrote: post #30
minikites wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Senate is an incredibly un-democratic institution and a truly massive barrier standing in the way of a functioning government. Mitch McConnell alone can dictate Senate business at his whims.

It is democratic, just not the sort one might expect. It’s a democracy of the states. That’s by design. The House is an approximate democracy of the people in the states (with some weighting so that the most populous states don’t have a complete monopoly) and the senate is a democracy of the states. Together they form an approximate republic of the country’s opinion... in an ideal world.

I could see that being true if we didn't have this two-party gridlock. In a world where D votes against R because "red team bad" and R votes against D because "blue team bad", it feels like we're watching our entire democracy erode away.

One person shouldn't be able to unilaterally decide what will and won't be voted on, and shouldn't be able to tell half of the senate how they'll be voting if they want access to re-election funds.

I don't know what the solution is, or who could implement one. But it's really hard to look at the last decade or two and claim that the senate is working as intended.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#53

Post by robotresearcher »

frankbreetz wrote: post #21

I know hn doesn't like politics, but it amazes me how popular one party's policies are(see polls for single payer healthcare, gov funded college, wealth tax, etc ), but it is still competitive. Republicans are certainly better at "politics". It will be fun to see how they spin this into the vague notion of socialism or somehow this is taking away your freedom.

> Republicans are certainly better at "politics".

They don't need to be better to get their way. The US system gives rural areas disproportionate political power. Rural areas are less diverse, older, more religious, less educated and more conservative than the cities.

The disproportionate influence was built in on purpose when the US was formed. Sparsely-populated states wouldn't agree to a union if populous New York was going to dominate all policy. There have always been arguments about the pros and cons.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#55

Post by bransonf »

> not expected to advance further as long as the Senate remains in Republican hands.

> “This legislation does not legalize cannabis across the country. It stops the federal government from interfering with what states have decided to do”

In all seriousness, isn’t the Republican platform weaker central government?

Why the exception?

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#56

Post by imglorp »

farisjarrah wrote: post #22
nip180 wrote: post #15

2/3 of Americans support legalizing cannabis. I don’t understand why this bill is so bipartisan among politicians if so many citizens support it.

Prison Industrial Complex lobbying https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/...

Don't forget pharma [1]. Non-addictive pain management with fewer side effects is not in their interest.

And similarly, the alcohol and tobacco industries. It's really never about morality.

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/13/one-s...

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#58

Post by ble »

free2OSS wrote: post #52
ahoy wrote: post #45

This means very little while the republicans control the senate, I imagine.

The timing here is awfully Political. I imagine Democrats wouldn't do this if they had control of the government. Seems like lip service to their bases.

It would be a shame if politicians got some Politics in our politics. /s

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#59

Post by mumblemumble »

CameronNemo wrote: post #41
lhopki01 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Republicans don't need 50% of the support. They need way less because of imbalances built into the system. If your core support still does not support legalizing cannabis then it's not worth it to do it.

For some hard numbers, as of 2018 15.95% of the US population lived in the 25 least populous states and elected half of the US Senate. To block an conviction of an impeached president or a constitutional amendment, only 34 senators (17 states) are needed. As of 2018, that was as little as 7.32% of the US population. If you care to do the math yourself, this is my source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S.…

> For some hard numbers, as of 2018 15.95% of the US population lived in the 25 least populous states and elected half of the US Senate.

Unless the Zetas have recently started moving into Wyoming, too, I'm guessing they're also the ones being least harmed by externalities from the war on drugs.

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