Politics & Power Quote by George Soros

Soros isn’t waxing philosophical here; he’s running a political play that dresses reform up as American tradition. By anchoring marijuana legalization to the repeal of alcohol prohibition, he’s borrowing a ready-made national memory: a moral crusade that collapsed under its own hypocrisy, enforcement costs, and unintended consequences. The move is tactical. Alcohol prohibition didn’t end because Washington suddenly discovered nuance; it ended because states started defecting, creating facts on the ground until federal policy became untenable. Soros is arguing the same ladder strategy should apply now.

The intent is to shift the battlefield from a polarized federal debate to a pragmatic state-by-state campaign where voters can be persuaded by budgets, policing priorities, and personal liberty rather than culture-war symbolism. “Must now take the initiative” is a not-so-subtle directive: don’t wait for Congress, manufacture momentum. It’s also a hedge against backlash. If legalization is framed as federal overreach, it loses; if it’s framed as states reclaiming authority, it gains.

The subtext is businesslike and unsentimental: prohibition is a governance failure, and the way you beat a failed system is by exploiting federalism. Soros is also normalizing marijuana by placing it in the same historical lane as alcohol, implying today’s panic will look quaint tomorrow. In context, this reflects a broader late-20th/early-21st century turn: drug policy increasingly argued through outcomes (incarceration rates, public health, tax revenue) rather than moral purity. The comparison does real work because it makes repeal feel less like a radical leap and more like overdue housekeeping.