It’s not just Trump, the nation is moving right
President Donald Trump is a generational political talent, and nothing should detract from his historic comeback win Tuesday. But those who believe the election was all about Trump and his charisma should pay attention to the outcomes of ballot measures, which reveal an electorate that rejects the leftward lurch of the era initiated and presided over by President Barack Obama. There is a clear signal of a desire to return to better, more conservative policy.
Efforts to normalize recreational drug use yet further failed in Massachusetts, Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Florida’s Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use, secured a majority of the vote but it failed to reach the 60% threshold needed to amend the state’s constitution. Ballot measures in both Dakotas, which also would have legalized recreational marijuana use in those states, were rejected by a solid majority of voters. In Massachusetts, voters decided against legalizing the recreational use of psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin and psilocin.
Enforcing drug prohibition laws is costly, and our criminal justice needs reform to minimize those costs. But legalization and normalization of drug use equally have costs, too, which the Democratic Party and its libertarian allies have ignored. Not only do marijuana and psychedelic drugs often lead to more dangerous drugs, but as the most recent research shows, marijuana and psychedelics are plenty harmful themselves.
On other matters relating to crime, an overwhelming 70% of California voters ended the state’s decadelong experiment with the decriminalization of most property and drug offenses. In 2014, Californians approved Proposition 47, which reduced many drug and property offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. As criminals learned that there would be next to no consequences for stealing and dealing drugs, crime soared. Despite efforts by elected Democrats to deny and suppress the shoplifting epidemic, retailers such as Target and Walmart joined forces to push Proposition 36 this year, which undoes much of the harm caused by the reforms of the Obama years.
In Arizona, the state with the second-longest shared border with Mexico, voters passed Proposition 314 to allow local police to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering Arizona from Mexico. Similar laws have been challenged by first the Obama administration and then by President Joe Biden’s in Arizona and Texas, but a Trump administration will probably welcome cooperation from local law enforcement to remove millions of illegal immigrants whom the Biden administration let into the country.
Nevada voters overwhelmingly approved Question 7, 73%-23%. This policy, supported by Republicans, aims to ensure the security of elections but is rejected by many Democrats who claim it suppresses minority voting. While the ballot measure’s 50-point margin sounds impressive, it underperformed the 84%-15% margin Gallup reported voters having on the issue this year. Nevada is now the 36th state to require voter identification. Congress should make it a national requirement for all federal elections from next year onward.
Voters across the country also either rejected new tax hikes, as in Oregon, where Measure 118 would have increased corporate taxes by $6 billion a year to pay for a cash benefit for residents, or passed new tax cuts, as in Georgia, where Amendment One created a new homestead property tax exemption.
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Even the far-left jurisdiction of Berkeley, California, Vice President Kamala Harris’s real hometown, got in on the action by repealing a city law that banned the installation of gas stoves in new homes. Even in Berkeley, Democrats don’t like the government telling them what they can use to cook.
Political winds change direction. Voters seem fed up with government laws that micromanage productive lawful behavior such as cooking but turn a blind eye to crime, illegal immigration, and drug abuse. This conservative moment may not last, but Republicans should push for as big a return to law and order as long as it does.
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