And, apparently, more popular than than Republican policies, too — Chris Bowers does the work (see Open Left for links to where the polling comes from):
It should also be noted that, at 40-41% (ed. note: Rasmussen and CBS polls respectively) support, legalizing marijuana is more popular than all of the following:
* Opposing stricter gun control laws (40%)
* Congress (26-40%)
* The war in Iraq (39%)
* Decreasing immigration levels (39%)
* Privatizing Social Security (36%)
* Opposing investigating the Bush administration (34%)
* Opposing national, government run health insurance (32%)
* Vetoing stem cell research (31%)
* The Republican Party (31%)
* Dick Cheney (30%)
* George W. Bush (24-34%)
* Decreasing business regulations (28%)
* Rush Limbaugh (28%)
* Mitch McConnell (22%)
* Preventing the openly gay from serving in the military (17%)
* John Boehner (17%)In short, legalizing marijuana is more popular than the Republican Party, most leading Republicans, and virtually the entire Republican platform.
Matt Yglesias takes it one step further, to visualize this state of affairs:
Remember that legalizing pot still isn’t something that a majority of Americans support yet. But apparently still recognize the fringe when they see it…..