US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

On one hand I'm very happy with all the recent policy changes coming down from different federal agencies, but on the other there's a very high likelihood that they will all be reversed a few months from now if/when a new administration takes over. That is always the downside of executive rule. With Congress unwilling/incapable of acting though I guess this is the best we'll get.

What bothers me is that all these things are only happening because it's an election year and the incumbent doesn't have great polling numbers.

Well, politicians doing what people want in order to get reelected is kinda the point of democracy.

There's no need to talk down to me.

My point was that they could be doing what people want for the entire duration of their term, rather than in the last few months. To use an analogy, it's like a student getting bad grades all year and then doing a bunch of extra credit assignments when they're worried about failing the class.

Your chief complaint is not new, it's nearly as old as democracy itself.

Different forms of democracy have various trade-offs, what your describing is the trade-off of representative democracy.