Why are GOP candidates suddenly talking about drugs again?

[Zinneke]

Is it really a vote winner for them given their legacy is the War on Drugs and defending deregulation of the Sacklers?

[Senator Incitatus]

Voters care more about next week than ten to thirty years ago.

Whether or not this actually works will depend entirely on how salient it is in the daily lives of voters, not how they feel about Nancy Reagan and D.A.R.E.

[Ferguson97]

So they can have an "excuse" to go to war with Mexico.

[RI]

Have you seen the cities on the west coast? This study of Seattle busses and trains just came out today:

Researchers detected methamphetamine in 98% of surface samples and 100% of air samples, while fentanyl was detected in 46% of surface and 25% of air samples.

[cg41386]

Because they secretly do them.

[S019]

Drugs are an issue where Republicans would likely have the upper hand in a fair fight. The problem for them is an entire generation of young people have been indoctrinated into thinking that drugs are cool. If Republicans can effectively present their message, then the pro drug movement would collapse in credibility, as it does not have any deeper arguments beyond “they are cool,” which only works when messaging to fairly naïve demographics like young people.

[MasterJedi]

The problem with Republicans on drugs is it’s all on punishment and not much else. Send troops into or go go war with Mexico. Executing drug dealers, felonies and long sentences for users. No punishment to the big drug companies who caused the problem.

Nothing to actually help people.

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

Because it's probably a winning issue for them at this point honestly

[DaleCooper]

Voters care more about next week than ten to thirty years ago.

Whether or not this actually works will depend entirely on how salient it is in the daily lives of voters, not how they feel about Nancy Reagan and D.A.R.E.

DARE is a legendary joke though. People will be skeptical of antidrug rhetoric for decades to come. This is a flop, especially once you consider their bizarre desire to go to war Mexico and the rest Latin America, a campaign promise so bad I struggle to comprehend that it's even real.

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

Voters care more about next week than ten to thirty years ago.

Whether or not this actually works will depend entirely on how salient it is in the daily lives of voters, not how they feel about Nancy Reagan and D.A.R.E.

DARE is a legendary joke though. People will be skeptical of antidrug rhetoric for decades to come. This is a flop, especially once you consider their bizarre desire to go to war Mexico and the rest Latin America, a campaign promise so bad I struggle to comprehend that it's even real.

It's a bad campaign PROMISE bit it's good campaigning. It's the type of macro strongman tactics Republicans love. It's not enough to help someone like DeSantis who is running a co.plete dumpster fire of a campaign otherwise but it is appealing to the gops new coalition

[Shaula🏳️‍⚧️]

Are they talking about drugs? I haven't seen any of them make a big point about keeping drugs illegal, I just see them talk about wanting to control the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico, which is a widely popular position.

[Aurelius2]

Over 100,000 Americans are dying of fentanyl overdose annually. We are in a national emergency that is getting clearly worse with every passing year. Marijuana aside the anti-"War on Drugs" approach has clearly failed, as shown by the conditions in various West Coast cities and states in particular.

[Mercenary]

Drugs have turned most American cities to ****. I know Seattle is a cesspool. The ear on drugs may have been a failure but the whole give up and let the drug zombies run around mindlessly doing drugs out in public downtown and live in tents and their own filth has been the biggest failure of the government in my lifetime by far. If the government cannot keep our own cities safe then the government is a failure and there is zero justification for the ridiculous amount of taxes that are taken from us. Clean up and make the cities safe or eliminate all taxes since we would be better off using our taxes to hire personal security.

[Sumner 1868]

Because DeSantis failure of a campaign has pretty much sunk the War on Drag and the War On CRT, so they're looking for something different. Thus far is the best they could think up.

[Zinneke]

Are they talking about drugs? I haven't seen any of them make a big point about keeping drugs illegal, I just see them talk about wanting to control the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico, which is a widely popular position.

I mean, the whole point is they want to ramp up the war on drugs to eleventy stupid, as they constantly seek to outbid one another on who can be the most rabidly anti-drug candidate to the point of weighing up military intervention in Mexico and having mock teenager rooms at their fairs to simulate where their kid is hiding PCP - usually behind a Biden poster.

Over 100,000 Americans are dying of fentanyl overdose annually. We are in a national emergency that is getting clearly worse with every passing year. Marijuana aside the anti-"War on Drugs" approach has clearly failed, as shown by the conditions in various West Coast cities and states in particular.

Hahaha what? If drugs were legalised* you realise fentanyl overdosing from cocaine consumption which kills a good proportion of who you cite would stop. As for the people who are actual opiate addicts were often made that way because of the terrible medical standards in the US when treating opiods compared to Europe. This is because the GOP especially licks the Sackler family's ass, deregulates the health industry while claiming to be good christians.

THe War on Drugs is still going and still failing as people take more and more socially liberal attitudes to drug usage and more importantly the massive mental health crisis takes over.

* and again, I would be in favour of a mixed approach to legalisation, not full gung ho everything is legal approach.

Drugs have turned most American cities to ****. I know Seattle is a cesspool. The ear on drugs may have been a failure but the whole give up and let the drug zombies run around mindlessly doing drugs out in public downtown and live in tents and their own filth has been the biggest failure of the government in my lifetime by far. If the government cannot keep our own cities safe then the government is a failure and there is zero justification for the ridiculous amount of taxes that are taken from us. Clean up and make the cities safe or eliminate all taxes since we would be better off using our taxes to hire personal security.

Social problems have turned American and now increasingly European cities to sh**t. If you look at a successful tackling of social problems, Houston combined left-wing and right-wing policies to get thousands of people off the street. The GOP want to cut welfare, and instead pay for the police to have Teslas and drive around doing rodeo or whatever through cities. The GOP have no credibility when it comes to tackling social problems like drug abuse because their war on drugs failed in the 80s.

[Shaula🏳️‍⚧️]

Are they talking about drugs? I haven't seen any of them make a big point about keeping drugs illegal, I just see them talk about wanting to control the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico, which is a widely popular position.

I mean, the whole point is they want to ramp up the war on drugs to eleventy stupid, as they constantly seek to outbid one another on who can be the most rabidly anti-drug candidate to the point of weighing up military intervention in Mexico and having mock teenager rooms at their fairs to simulate where their kid is hiding PCP - usually behind a Biden poster.

I literally haven't seen any Republican candidate try to position themselves as anti-drug, which is very different from previous Republican campaigns.
Or are you saying that speaking out against the illegal fentanyl crossing the border and killing thousands is being  "anti-drug".

There's a difference between wanting the fentanyl deaths to stop and wanting to ban weed.

[quesaisje]

They never stopped talking about drugs, especially with regard to border security. Even the specific conversation about fent has been ongoing for years.

[MasterJedi]

They never stopped talking about drugs, especially with regard to border security. Even the specific conversation about fent has been ongoing for years.

Most fentanyl comes into the US in the mail from China. But harder to boogie man that than the Mexican.