Is Donald Trump Pandering with Marijuana Legalization?

-

 The Harris campaign has recently called out Donald Trump for pandering to Florida voters on Amendment 3, the marijuana legalization ballot. According to The Hill, Trump stated on Truth Social that he believes it's time to end needless arrests for small amounts of marijuana use, and that "we must also implement smart regulations while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product."

These comments come as surprising to many since Trump's active position on marijuana does not align with his previous record. Joseph Costello, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, says that regardless of the pandering, Trump cannot gloss over extensive evidence of him dragging marijuana reform backwards. 


During his presidency, Trump double downed on nonviolent marijuana offenses, in some cases undermining state legalization laws, opposed safe banking legislation, and even trying to remove protections for medical marijuana usage. Given his harsh stance on marijuana during his presidency, it is alarming for voters to see a significant switch in policy, and many voters are not falling for his pandering. 

Trump stated in the same interview that he would focus on researching medical uses for marijuana and work on bringing it down to a Schedule 3 drug rather than a Schedule 1 drug. This would mean marijuana is considered to have lower misuse potential, and would also then be allowed for medical use. Trump then mentions working with Congress to pass common sense laws, including supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws. 

Funnily enough, The Biden administration announced their rule-making process to reschedule marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 earlier in the year. Considering the Biden administration is trying to go through with reversing inequities with marijuana classification, many are accusing Trump doing the same thing as a method of pandering towards swing states where marijuana laws could be crucial in him winning the states.

References

Suter, T (2024). Harris Campaign Calls Trump Marijuana Post 'Blatant Pandering'. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4870447-harris-trump-florida-marijuana-legalization/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

So... How Well Did Pandering Work

-
Image
It's been about a week and some change since the 2024 United States Presidential Election, and whether sad or happy about the results, Donald Trump has been elected by the American people as our next president. Given the news, I wanted to discuss how pandering worked out for each candidate. For Harris, she was recognized for having a good campaign in the few months she was able to campaign, but in the end it was not enough. She was known for pandering towards younger audiences, but even then, she was not certain on issues that young voters cared the most about. She took a majority of her campaign to describe abortion rights, which were incredibly controversial among conservative audiences. In an article by Yahoo! News , they suggest her inability to campaign other issues voters had was a reason as to why her hype did not translate into votes. She pandered to several demographics, but it appears her strategy did not work in her favor as some voters felt alienated by her stances Trum...
Read more

Trump Clocked In At McDonald's and Walz Calls Out Pandering

-
Image
 In the staged event on Sunday, Trump was in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania "serving" up fries for customers to depict his ability to empathize and connect with the working class. While this could be in good faith, many were quick to jump at Trump for pandering to working class audiences by pretending to work at McDonald's. According to an article by CNN , the store was closed for a campaign stop, and Trump decided to put an apron on and work as a fry attendant.  Many politicians like Tim Walz were quick to point out this as blatant pandering, as Trump has never had to work a fast food, low income job in his life. Not to mention the store was closed during the event, and he did not serve customers outside of the campaign event he was doing. According to an article by The Hollywood Reporter , Walz spoke about how he and Harris grew up middle class and had to work for what they had. He mentioned how Harris actually  worked at McDonald's and did not pander and disrespe...
Read more

Is Harris Pandering Towards Conservatives?

-
Image
 In a recent interview Kamala Harris took part in, she was pressed about gender-affirming care for transgender Americans. This is coming off Trump's campaign being especially anti transgender rights, and many are wondering how Harris feels on the issue. It's also important for young millennial and generation Z voters identify with Harris more, but she won't give a specific and clear answer to the questions asked on gender-affirming care. A big criticism on Harris has been her lack of clear policy, but she is adamant on being anti-Trump rather than her own candidate.  In an article by USA Today , Harris says that "we should follow the law" and then points fingers at Trump and proceeds to say she will not put herself in the position of doctors to make the decision of whatever is medically necessary.  These quotes emphasize that Harris is not as liberal thinking as many younger voters would like her to be, and that she has uncertain policies on the rights many voters...
Read more