Marijuana reform polls at 68% approval. Has polled there for a decade. Politicians now think this will save them in November.
It won't.
The same people who support legalization also support universal healthcare, student loan forgiveness, and free puppies for everyone. They show up to rallies. They sign petitions. They retweet the f*ck out of progressive candidates. Then they stay home on Election Day because Mercury is in retrograde or their chakras feel misaligned or whatever excuse lands first.
Both parties know this. They're running on cannabis reform anyway. Republicans in purple districts suddenly care about criminal justice. Democrats act like they haven't controlled the Senate and the White House for two years while doing absolutely nothing about federal rescheduling.
The technical analysis here is flawless. You've got bipartisan support for an issue voters claim to care about. You've got momentum heading into midterms. You've got poll numbers that would make any strategist salivate. And you've got precisely zero chance this moves a single seat because the Venn diagram of "passionate about weed legalization" and "actually votes in midterms" is two circles in different time zones.
Retail traders will somehow find a way to lose money on this. They'll pile into cannabis stocks in October. They'll convince themselves this is the catalyst. They'll watch their portfolios bleed out the day after elections when exactly nothing changes and both parties go back to pretending the issue doesn't exist.
The real reform isn't federal legalization. It's teaching voters that caring about something and doing something about it are not the same thing.
Photo by Linoleum Creative Collective on Unsplash
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