Posted on 12/12/2012 7:35:21 AM PST by Kaslin
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed for the first time to take on the issue of gay marriage. No matter how it rules in the two cases it will hear next spring, polling data suggest it is only a matter of time before legal recognition of same-sex unions is the norm throughout the country.
Something similar is happening with marijuana, which became legal in Washington last week and in Colorado on Monday. With both pot and gay marriage, familiarity is breeding tolerance.
The cases before the Supreme Court deal with popular reactions against gay marriage: the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that barred the federal government from recognizing state-licensed gay marriages, and Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that amended California's Constitution to eliminate same-sex couples' right to marry, which the California Supreme Court had recognized that year. But something interesting happened after those measures passed: Surveys now indicate that most Americans support gay marriage.
The turnaround was remarkably fast. A 1996 Gallup poll found that 27 percent of Americans thought same-sex marriages should be "recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages"; by last year, that number had nearly doubled. Recent surveys by ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN also put support for gay marriage above 50 percent.
Striking generational differences mean these numbers will continue to rise. In a CBS News poll last month, 72 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds supported gay marriage, compared to 53 percent of 30- to 44-year-olds, 44 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds and 33 percent of respondents who were 65 or older.
The consequences of these changing attitudes could be seen in last month's election results. For the first time ever, gay marriage was legalized by popular referendum -- not in one state, but in three: Maine, Maryland and Washington. Voters in a fourth state, Minnesota, rejected an initiative that would have amended the state constitution to prohibit gay marriage (which is already banned there by statute).
On the same day, voters in Colorado and Washington approved ballot measures aimed at legalizing the cultivation, possession and sale of marijuana for recreational use. The initiatives won by surprisingly healthy margins of about 10 points in both states, in contrast with a California legalization measure that lost by 7 points two years ago.
Nationwide support for marijuana legalization, like nationwide support for gay marriage, has increased dramatically, although not quite as swiftly, rising from 12 percent in a 1969 Gallup poll to a record 50 percent last year. While support for legalization dipped a bit during the anti-pot backlash of the Just Say No era, it began rising again in the 1990s. Public Policy Polling recently put it at 58 percent, the highest level ever recorded.
With pot as with gay marriage, there are clear age-related differences, reflecting different levels of experience with marijuana. In the CBS News survey, support for legalization was 54 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds, 53 percent among 30- to 44-year-olds, 46 percent among 45- to 64-year-olds and 30 percent among respondents of retirement age.
Just as an individual's attitude toward gay people depends to a large extent on how many he knows (or, more to the point, realizes he knows), his attitude toward pot smokers (in particular, his opinion about whether they should be treated like criminals) is apt to be influenced by his personal experience with them. Americans younger than 65, even if they have never smoked pot, probably know people who have, and that kind of firsthand knowledge provides an important reality check on the government's anti-pot propaganda.
Another clear pattern in both of these areas: Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to oppose legalizing gay marriage and marijuana. Yet Republicans are also more likely to oppose federal interference with state policy choices. In light of DOMA's disregard for state marriage laws and the Obama administration's threats to prevent Colorado and Washington from allowing marijuana sales, now is put-up-or-shut-up time for the GOP's avowed federalists.
I think the turn-arounds seem fast because to most Americans, these two issues aren’t that important.
It's prohibition is extremely expensive and empowers the drug cartels.
How soon will it be that cigars and cigarettes are banned from bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, the workplace, the dumpster outside the workplace, the home, the public sidewalks and the all-male public sauna, while marijuana smoking is openly promoted in the gay household living room and nursery and nursery school?
At the rate we're going, the only freedom we're going to have left is smoking weed.
For the time being, I'm just happy Warshington State and Colorado have legalized marijuana in hopes the potheads here in California will go there and destroy those states.
Maybe that'll give us a chance to turn things around here.
You just proved something about the libertarians, in California cigarettes are even banned outdoors at beaches and parks, and the libertarians haven't made a peep, yet they are rightly famous for constantly harping on pot.
When confronted, the liberaltarians will of course say that they are pro-cigarette, we assume, but why after 40 years of being identified with promoting ALL drugs, do they even have to be asked?
They have been uninterested in 30 years of a new and increasing banning of cigarettes, of the imposition of a NEW prohibition against tobacco, yet frantic and screaming on the importance of legalizing drugs.
It all makes sense now. Gay marriage & marijuana being legalized on the same day. Leviticus 20:13- "If a man lays with another man he should be stoned." We were just interpreting it wrong.
The SC will probably rule that the feds can define marriage for their purposes and the states can as well.
MJ the same.
Wait for it: soon, pedophiles will demand that their sick, aberrant behavior be codified as "the NORM," and then legalized.
Necrophiliacs after that.
Who are YOU (they'll say) to tell them what they can/can't do??
poison?
Ressults of dumbing down.Proof who is pResident.
has everyone noticed how all the MSM stories are directed at “inevitable”?
even glen beck surrendered to the hedonists.
Exactly. It’s one of the reasons I can never take libertarians seriously. Not a peep about cigarette bans, but loud obsessiveness over dope.
I call absolute BS on your argument. Libertarians are not silent on smoking bans. If you notice their connection to other drugs more, I don’t know. Maybe it’s that the drug debate is more noticeable. Maybe it’s confirmation bias. Maybe they actually do spend more time and money on pot, but that’s because prohibition is worse than restriction.
There’s also the fact that anti-prohibition has a longer pedigree. The libs’ antismoking crusade didn’t explode until relatively recently. Here in MN, ground zero of tobacco lawsuits, libertarians have been more consistent than any others on our side of the “public health” debate.
Did it ever occur to you that there are lots of people you've had conversations with that have smoked pot and you aren't aware of it?
Using illegal drugs to escape from reality is cowardice. Attempting to escape from reality also has another name.....insanity.
A male attempting to mate with another male’s anal canal is insane. A female trying to mate with another female with a rubber appliance is insane. It’s like having Aunt Rosie sitting at your dinner table trying to eat by sticking a turkey baster in her ear and telling you that’s just her lifestyle. It may be, but it’s also insane behavior.
RE: The damage that pot does to young brains...
I completely agree. Also never mentioned by the dopers is that it causes genetic defects. Marijuana is an EXTREMELY unforgiving drug, and making it more common is death for America.
LOL, you can praddle on, but you can’t change reality.
The anti-smoking crusade predates your birth, and by the 1970s smoking was being banned in stores and elevators in some places.
California went statewide in 1995, yet the liberaltarians have made barely a peep, and have no identification with tobbacco issues.
Drugs, porn, abortion, hookers, are what drives the libertarian crowd.
A new prohibition is being implemented in plain sight, in real time, today, and libertarians aren’t interested.
Using illegal drugs to escape from reality is cowardice. Attempting to escape from reality also has another name.....insanity.
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So remember kids, always use legal drugs to escape from reality, which indicates that you are brave and sane.
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