Nation wide legalization of marijuana may be in the works.

[TaraJo]

The Republicans, on the other hand, know they need to change something after the last election

Wishful thinking, methinks. From what I've seen, the Republican party may be growing more and more right-wing.

It even fits in with their political theory of 'small, non-intrusive government.'

But really, since when have people who claimed to support "Small, non-intrusive government" actually followed through on those beliefs? I'm not saying that people don't really believe that this is a good idea, just that the people who do are hardly ever in power. This is the party who came close to turning America into a police state after 9/11 and has long been the biggest supporter of the military-industrial complex. "Small government" is just doublespeak bullshit along the same line as "States' rights."

No, they don't want to change. And generally speaking, they won't change. But on this one issue? Sure. Someone here mentioned what they're wanting to do is a 'rebranding' process where they try to disassociate themselves from the failed brand that killed them in the last election (Tea Party) and try to give themselves a new name. In order for them to be able to say "we're not like those old Republicans" they have to have an issue where they've changed their mind from the past. Marijuana gives them that issus.

So, yeah, they'll still be just as full of shit on all the other issues. They'll still be willing to destroy the rest of the economy to preserve tax cuts for Grover Norquist. They're still going to be firmly convinced that protecting GLBT people will somehow infringe on the rights of fundamentalist Christians. They'll still have a foreign policy reminecent of Ghengis Khan. They'll just flip on one, specific issue, especially since it's an issue where public opinion has shifted rapidly. And they'll use that one flip to say how different they were from previous incarnations of the Republican party.

And the scary thing is that it may very well work. Just get your people to stop talking about rape and pass the immigration bill so you don't have to make quasi-racist speeches.