Ron Swansons Stache wrote:Maringue wrote:Even though my dad is a republican, he likes hemp. Mainly because it makes the best natural fiber rope you can buy.
Wouldn't a republican/conservative be pro-help naturally? They're more for smaller government/less regulations etc.
Either way, there's no reason at all that hemp should still be illegal honestly, but I don't see it changing anytime soon.
They're a complicated bunch made up of different factions. Keep in mind that it's the party that is typically all about limited government and individual freedom . . . unless you're a gay hoping to get married or you want to abort or you want to use "controlled substances."
The party has definitely evolved a lot over the last few decades with a lot of it due to the surge of neo-conservatism. Pollution control is a good issue to look at this all:
The Clean Air Amendment of 1990 was signed into law by George Bush, Sr. with overwhelming support from the Senate (89% yeas, nays were split 5 Dems / 5 Reps) and the House (93% yeas, nays were 5 Dems / 16 Reps). The nays more frequently came from major polluting states than they did from Republicans, in my opinion. Anyways, that bill established emissions trading markets for a couple of acid rain producing pollutants. It less than a decade for the markets to be a highly successful way to drop pollution rates without harming economic progress. The market sorted things out leading to almost immediate and drastic drops in emission prices and rates.
Since the beginning of Bush, Jr.'s time in office, emission trading schemes have been hated by the neo-conservative riddled Republican party simply for the fact that they are regulations. A mercury emission trading market was attempted during GWB's second term, but it was pretty quickly shot down by the Legislature, despite being a popular method for reducing mercury levels with major utilities, who would be incurring the brunt of the costs.
Similarly, the Republicans have fought tooth and nail against carbon cap and trade (i.e., emission trading) during the Obama administration. The mercury and carbon cap and trade systems would be incredibly similar to the mechanism of the Acid Rain Program of the 90's, which was frequently lauded by Republicans of that era because it was environmental regulation that was not top-down command.
And Republicans in only the last five years have flip flopped on the climate change issue. Both McCain and Lindsay Graham had been co-authors of carbon cap and trade bills since 2006 and both now claim that carbon emissions are not a problem. The range of excuses from Republicans is widespread from "nothing is happening" to "humans aren't to blame" to "the science is uncertain" to "it'll kill our economy" to "the market will take of this on its own". The fact that the reasons for why Republicans nowadays are so opposed to carbon regulations is proof itself that the group is quite diverse in their ideology.
I got tired of looking at Drawed's face.