I'm not a political/partisan person.
That having been said, both Parties are NOT equally bad.
The Democratic Party Platform in 2016 called for a pathway to legalization.
The Republican Party gave us Jeff Sessions.
Party platforms are pretty much irrelevant feel-goods to particular portions of their colloquium.
The Republican Party did not give us Jeff Sessions, Trump did.
For those who want depth on the marijuana/federalism issue, see (This is a scholarly report from a law professor.):
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.e...-i&httpsredir=1&article=1039&context=caselrev
Although written back in 2015, the parties' positions were described (in part [odd numbers are to footnotes and citations in the report]):
Questions about the proper balance between the federal and state government have endured since the nation’s founding. Marijuana policy is just the latest battleground in this longstanding conflict. It is also an issue that could cut across traditional right–left political lines.
Drug policy reform is often seen as a “liberal” issue. Conservatives are expected to be “tough on crime, and voters who support marijuana legalization are more likely to support Democratic political candidates. Yet many Democrats continue to oppose changes to marijuana laws,21 and it is those on the political right who are more likely to call for allowing states to deviate from one-size-fits-all federal policies and serve as “laboratories of democracy.”22 On everything from environmental regulation to education policy, Republican officeholders argue that individual states should be able to adopt their own policy priorities, free from federal interference.
Does conservative support for a greater policy decentralization mean conservatives may support state marijuana policy initiatives? Perhaps. Republican support for legislation that would give states greater leeway to pursue their own marijuana policies appears to be growing, even if most of the support for such measures (and legalization generally) comes from the Democratic side of the aisle. In May 2014, the House of Representatives passed a measure barring the Department of Justice or Drug Enforcement Administration from spending federal monies on efforts to prevent states from implementing state laws that allow for medical marijuana.23 The measure was sponsored by Representative Dana Rohrbacher, (R-CA) and supported by another forty-eight Republicans. The prior time such a measure had been proposed, not even thirty House Republicans would support it. 21.
As Republicans gear up for the 2016 presidential election, several potential candidates have voiced support for state prerogative. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former Texas Governor Rick Perry— two prominent conservatives—have both stated that states should be able to set their own marijuana policies even though each has also said that he personally opposes legalization.24 Speaking of the Colorado ballot initiative to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2015, Senator Cruz explained, “If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that’s their prerogative. I personally don’t agree with it, but that’s their right.”25
Other prominent Republicans, such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have also expressed a willingness to consider letting each state go its own way, particularly so long as activities in one state are not allowed to have significant effects upon its neighbors.26 While running for Vice President in 2012, Representative Paul Ryan (RWis.) also expressed support for letting states decide whether to legalize medical marijuana—at least temporarily. He told a Colorado television station that he believed Washington should “let the states decide what they want to do with these things.”27 Within days, however, the campaign claimed that Ryan supported Mitt Romney’s position and opposed any legalization of marijuana.28
The Romney campaign’s hostility to any discussion of marijuana policy reform is understandable given the longstanding conservative hostility to drug policy reform.29 In some cases, conservative commentators have suggested that state-level reform efforts could be challenged on federalism grounds.30 If nothing else, federalism limits on state power may complicate state regulatory efforts.31
