While former Colorado congressman Tom
Tancredo
endorsed that state’s marijuana legalization initiative, the
think tank he ran before he was elected to the House did not. The
Independence Institute (“Freedom’s Front Line”)  “held no
position on Amendment 64,” its current president, Jon Caldara,

notes. But Caldara argues that, “even if you hate pot being
legal,” the measure’s passage two weeks ago created “a great
teachable moment”:

We finally have a state-rights issue that the Left can, must and
will understand and fight to preserve….

This is a massive opportunity for those of us who fear the
growing central authority in D.C. Some portion of the Left will now
agree with us. We need to embrace this challenge and take a lead in
educating Coloradans about the Tenth Amendment before the Left
tries to pervert it somehow.

In order for those who support pot to keep in legal in Colorado,
they MUST embrace the Founders’ ideal of Federalism. And I believe
we need to help them understand the power of this simple ideal, and
why it applies to a whole lot more than weed.

But if you hate Amendment 64 and wish it smothered out of
existence, the only way that can happen now is if you embrace what
the Left embraces: federal power trumping the expressed wishes of a
sovereign state. Perhaps, like health insurance, the Feds can tax
us for not purchasing dope, but they’ll have to pervert the
Constitution (again) to override the vote in Colorado.

I expressed similar hopes in the July issue of Reason,
where I argued
that conservatives and progressives should unite against an
overweening national government.