The LA Times comes out against Prop 19, in part because the bill would "would set up an inevitable conflict with the federal government that might not end well for the state." Thoreau counters:
[C]hange will not come from DC. Change will have to start at the local and state level. The Feds can continue to arrest whoever they want to arrest. All that Prop 19 says is that the state will not be prosecuting anybody. There will be hard legal questions and state-federal tensions over this, but waiting for Congress to fix this means you’ll wait forever.
Drum agrees:
I find this to be one of the strongest reasons to vote for Prop 19. Frankly, I think a showdown with the federal government might be long overdue, and contra the Times, I'd say our experiment with medical marijuana, on balance, has been a good thing.
If we had waited for the feds, we would have no gay marriage rights at all.