Pot is the Republican boogeyman. Or so says governor candidate Jeanne Ives

Marijuana remains the demon drug, so to speak. A substance that certain people in our society want to single out because of some belief that it’s the “liberal” drug.

IVES: Ties Dems to pot

And that punishing people for marijuana possession and use is a way of criminalizing liberal thought and actions.

NEVER MIND THE truth that any connection between the “peace” and “love” sentiments of the 1960s, Hippies and marijuana use is long gone. Most pot users are nitwits in need of a buzz – and many of whom probably spout out the tired rhetoric of conservative ideologues.

So excuse me for thinking that Jeanne Ives, the state senator from Wheaton who has dreams of deposing Bruce Rauner as governor, is a bit delusional in her latest round of rhetoric.

The one where she denounced Democrats as the political party of “recreational marijuana, higher taxes, more spending.” That was said by Ives (who says that one of Rauner’s flaws as governor is that he doesn’t adequately support Donald Trump’s presidency) during a recent appearance in rural Illinois.

I’m sure if they could, the ideologues amongst us would criminalize any line of thought they happen to disagree with. But since that would be blatantly un-American, they settle for this means of harassment of certain people in our society.

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SPECIFICALLY IN MATTOON, the News-Gazette of Champaign-Urbana reported Thursday of Ives’ latest round of rhetoric where she denounces Rauner’s re-election chances – claiming the candidate whom Democratic Chicago has come to despise and whom the labor unions will focus their attention on defeating is actually way too liberal for Illinois.

“He should not, and he cannot win,” said Ives, according to the News-Gazette.

For Ives and the ideologues remain peeved that Rauner – the governor who caused a two-year period of Illinois government without a budget – didn’t similarly thwart abortion- and immigration-related measures that have come before the General Assembly.

An out-of-date image GOP still tries to use

So now, to try to get the political support of local Republican officials, she’s bringing up pot. As though our state’s Legislature is on the verge of legalizing certain substances that otherwise would warrant prison time.

EVEN THOUGH THE reality is that decriminalization and legalization are far from the same, and government officials go so far as to maintain heavy restriction on the notion of medical use of marijuana that some would argue it becomes way too difficult for people who could have a legitimate use for grass to actually obtain it.

Which, to me, sounds like the same strategy that Republican operatives have used for coping with abortion since the Supreme Court of the United States legitimized it more than four decades ago – it may be legal, but it can be a pain in the derriere to actually terminate a pregnancy.

Yet the ideologues would have us think that we have 13-year-old girls freely ending pregnancies without parental knowledge – let alone permission. Just as they’d have us think that the Democratic side of the Senate and House of Representatives chambers are covered in a cloud of humo de marijuana.

Some yearn too strongly for decade of Reagan/Graham, when what I remember ...

While the Republican side of the aisle is clean and pure and we hear the chorus of “Hallelujah” playing all the time. Except for those GOPers who are of such an ideological bent that they denounce the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as being un-Christian (and thereby wicked).

MY FIRST REACTION to hearing of such rhetoric is always the same – somebody’s been watching too much of “Cheech and Chong” and taking their comedy routines from the 1970s way too literally.

... were silly haircuts of 'A Flock of Seagulls'

Which is why I have a hard time taking any of it seriously. Most likely, Ives is a Wheaton native who thinks we’re still back in the ‘80s. As in Ronald Reagan is president, Billy Graham is the spiritual role model for her home city (the evangelist attended Wheaton College) and DuPage County is the heart and strength of the Illinois Republican Party.

Even though the reality is that the modern-day heart and strength of the GOP is Bruce Rauner’s wallet – since he’s providing the financing for many of the legislative candidates he’s counting on to be his political allies. Which means Ives is not even as strong within the Republican ranks as she’d like to think.

As for all that marijuana talk that comes from Ives and her ideologue followers, it can't help but make me wonder what kind of substances they've been smoking.

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