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Tomorrow is Repeal Day
By James | December 4, 2007
Tomorrow marks the 76th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st amendment to the US constitution, also known as Repeal Day. As you may or may not know, the 21st amendment repeals the 18th amendment which began prohibition. I’ll drink to that.
The prohibition movement succeeded thanks to heavy lobbying by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party. By banning alcohol, they claimed, we would see the reduction or even elimination of of society’s ills: prostitution, murder, and even racism. Protesters against alcohol did everything from singing hymns to customers in saloons to taking a hatchet and smashing bottles. Amazingly, both organizations still exist.
This, of course, begs the question: What the hell were they thinking? After prohibition, virtually all the ills of society that were supposed to be reduced or eliminated had gotten far worse; even public drunkenness. Organized crime got out of hand, and respect for the authority of law plummeted.
Whoops!
With all that fervor over something that turned out to be essentially a non-issue, it makes you wonder about the policies of today.
What about the war on drugs? A quick Google search will tell you it’s about as popular as the war in Iraq. Would ending the war on drugs be similar to the end of prohibition? What, if anything, makes this form of prohibition different?
What about smoking bans? I don’t smoke but I find smoking bans that affect private businesses pretty troubling, albeit convenient.
What else?