Prohibition- a Tale from the Past

Most of us are familiar with prohibition, one of the stupidest misuses of the Constitution in the history of the United States.  But very few people have a clue where this misbegotten crusade came from.  Today is, I think, a good day to recall its story.

What a waste.  Oh well, at least they were only hatcheting whiskey bottles and not women's bodies, as we are likely to get this time around.


What nobody remembers about prohibition (it being convenient for us to forget) is that prohibition was a predecessor of Republican abortion mania.  That is, no leader of the Republican party gave a damn about prohibition, or thought it would accomplish much of anything, but it was a way to delude right wing Christians into supporting the Republican party, by pandering to one of their idiotic obsessions.  So, against the will of the great majority of the American people, into the Constitution it went.  And it worked spectacularly for the Republicans: the next three Presidents were all Republicans, bringing us the Great Depression and World War II.  


But who cared?  Republicans ruled, even if they did nearly destroy the world in the process.  People also forget that Roosevelt, when he ran for President in 1932, promised to do away with this nonsense, and in fairly short order he did, returning the country to relative sanity on this issue at least.  Of course, Roosevelt also ended the Depression and won World War II, earning the eternal hatred of Republicans for daring to accomplish anything good while being a Democrat.  This threatened their claim of divine right to rule the country.  Luckily for them, memory is weak with Americans, and so by the 1960's people had forgotten what a colossal failure had resulted from letting Republicans control things, and they were able to get right back to their old tricks.  


And here we are today, complete with the 21st century version of prohibition.  We'd better watch out, too, or economic devastation and world war will not be far behind (if humanity lasts that long,) since these too, along with pandering to the stupid and the hate-filled, have always been essential elements of Republicanism.


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