It just cries out for something to be smoked....

Okay, got that out of my system.

People have been predicting the legalization of pot for at least forty years. 40 years. I remember in the late 70's there were big rumors, maybe true who knows, that tobacco companies were trademarking names like Acapulco Gold and Redbud. Legalization was imminent. Never happened.

Not long ago, ten or twelve years maybe, there was a big deal about some well respected federal judge in Colorado ragging on the insane drug laws we have and the social costs of them, legalization was immenent. Never happened.

Now, more and more states are making it legal to smoke pot for medical purposes only, and legalization is imminent. Won't happen. Not in ten years. Obama will be out of office, Republicans will take back Congress, lesser knowledgeable attitudes will prevail and laws will be changed.

Drugs are a moral issue, and American politics are all based on personal morals now. Even legalization is based largely on compassion, which is just morality by another name.

Weed will largely stay legal for medical purposes, but restrictions on who and how to get it are going to get tightened big time. California fucked up and let it all go to pot, heh, now they're going to have to redo everything, and the ensuing crackdown will be far harsher than it is now.

Gay marriage, same thing. Actually, for even Cuba in a way, the Democrats are going to have to hold a majority in Congress, if not the White House as well, for any of these three to really happen in the next ten years. The Republicans will never, ever allow either one to happen. And considering the Supreme Court we have today, states are not going to be forced to recognize other states gay marriages, and neither will the court allow federal law to over ride states rights on this issue. Not on gay marriage, not like it's eminent domain or anything.

Cuba is the only one of the three I can see coming close to happening inside ten years. But as long as Florida stays big on the national stage, it's gonna take some huge balls by someone to lift all restrictions on travel to Cuba. We'll lighten them, sure, but not lift completely.

Politics in this country are far too partisan now for any compromise on these issues. Whatever party is in power will shove their agenda through, and as soon as the other party takes over they'll change it all back. The only legislation that will stay between the idealogical shifts will be any that benefits industry and finance. Workers and consumers will continue to lose, as they always do when you confuse capitalism with social policy.

Anyway, them's my thoughts.

I agree. The problem is people like Pelosi who are so radicalized and leftist. Obama has to come to a consensus and it will hurt him to some extent because he loses the last vestiges of his 'outsider' status. I think the American people can do Cuba and possibly Pot (But maybe not in ten years) but i think Gay Marriage is too Polarizing. We need not forget what happened in California with the last proposition. If California is not liberal enough for that I doubt states like Wyoming, Alabama, and so on are.

The author does make a good point. The GOP has always alienated those among us that are libertarians. That is why we sometimes break from the party and will look to candidates that are conservative democrats or more liberal republicans. One of the reasons I voted for Obama was because I knew he would have a more liberal policy on drugs.

The problem is Pelosi and the radicalized leftists? As opposed to the moderate right that is the modern GOP?

Anyway, California is not near as liberal as many people think it is. Outside of LA and SF, much of California is moderate and even conservative. And what about Idaho? Hardly a bastion of liberal thought, yet their state supreme court saw what a ban on gay marriage really was; unconstitutional discrimination.

Why don't you think travel to cuba will happen? Who cares about cuba? Might as well open trade relations completely and try and pawn some of our junk on them.

I disagree fully. On all three of these issues time is on our side. Support for all three varies drastically by age with younger generations far more favorable legalizing drugs and gay marriage than older generations.

Already a majority of Americans supports "Civil Unions", and current generations are growing up familar with gays in the media and more likely to know out-of-the-closet homosexuals- both factors that encourage a tolerance for gays and support of gay marriage.

On the Cuban issue the most adamant voices of our current policy has been the Cuban refugee population, especially in Florida whose swing state status amplifies their effect. But as the original generation of Cuban ex-patriots fades into history, the second and third generation of Cuban-Americans is not as militant and is more willing to accept alternate policies. Additionally, with Fidel in ill health and likely to die in the near future from natural causes, change is imminent.

Anyone who considers Nancy Pelosi a radical leftist displays a degree of ignorance that staggers the mind. Pelosi has consistently been a centrist since taking the speaker's seat and has shown no mercy in beating down insurgencies from the progressive caucus, most recently by hugely moderating the public option in the House health care bill. Why do you think Cindy Sheehan challenged her in the primary last year? She's been a poster child for congressional Democrats cowtowing to GOP idiocy for three years already, outdone only by Harry Reid.