President Biden was once hailed by the Washington Post as a “warrior” in the battle against illegal drugs. His pardon of those convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, though, signals that political battles are a higher priority. It also shows how, even if Republicans capture Congress, he’ll still be able to set the national narrative on terms favorable to Democrats. 

“Simple possession” covers individuals caught with small amounts of drugs for personal use. Some of those convicted may have pled down to the charge and the pardon is a blunt tool to free them all, but that’s deep in the weeds of the issue — weeds where Republicans are now forced to fight.

For all the talk of Mr. Biden’s lame-duck status if a red wave delivers the House and Senate in November, the presidency will remain a co-equal branch invested with powers such as the pardon that ensure he’ll remain a force to be reckoned with in Washington.

As President Clinton said after the historic Republican election of 1994 delivered them Congress for the first time in 40 years, “I’m still relevant.” He adjusted to the new reality and claimed credit for popular Contract with America items such as welfare reform and a balanced budget.

This is the path Mr. Biden looks set to follow. Although the practical result of his pardon is minimal — impacting only 6,500 people convicted in the last 30 years “under federal law, and thousands more under D.C. code” according to NPR — he has put pressure on GOP candidates and officeholders to follow suit in his opening shot.

“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana,” Mr. Biden said in his statement reversing his previous hard-line stance in the War on Drugs, “no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” agree or disagree, with no middle option available. 

They may wish to talk about crime, inflation, gasoline prices, the border, and the threat of nuclear war, but with the stroke of a pen, Mr. Biden did what President Nixon did in China, showing his foes in Moscow, as Secretary of State Kissinger said, “We had a bigger canvas to paint on than they had calculated.” 

Young voters who support recreational marijuana will be energized by the move as they were by Mr. Biden’s student loan forgiveness, which — because of its dubious legal standing — he’s been forced to shrink, but only after scoring that PR coup.

So, Republicans are again left scrambling for a response. They can object on the grounds of law and order, trying to turn the Democratic mantra that “nobody is above the law” against them, and they’ll be right. 

Each convicted person had their day in court. But facts aren’t silver bullets in politics. Emotion plays a major role in campaigns, which is why Mr. Biden tapped the race card at the outset. 

“[W]hile white and black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates,” the president said Thursday, “black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates,” framing the pardons as a social justice issue rather than a legal one.

Citing Mr. Biden’s concerns as recently as the 2020 Democratic primaries that marijuana is a gateway drug — at a time when over 100,000 Americans are dying every year from fentanyl overdoses alone — could land a blow, but after 50 years of Cheech & Chong, pot is no longer seen as the evil weed of “Reefer Madness.”

Republicans will also point out that Mr. Biden voted for tough punishment during his decades in the Senate. The 1994 crime bill was his crowning achievement until it became a political liability. But one man’s flip-flop is another man’s “evolving.” 

Mr. Biden can count on the press and a Democratic base sympathetic to marijuana use heralding his move as the latter. Republican objections will just harsh their mellow; they’ll be the narcs bucking a compassionate commander-in-chief.

Thursday’s pardons are a reminder that even if Republicans take Congress, the president will still have the tools to smoke them.