Eighteenth Amendment
Progressive Conservative Democrats helped drive Alcohol Prohibition: the right way for once, via the Amendment process. While their propaganda tries to label it "right wing": most of the leadership and effort came from the Progressive, Democrats and the left. The whole radical idea that you should limit what other people put in their bodies, through federal powers, is quite a bit against the whole spirit of conservatism, individualism, liberty and the constitution. This was a huge lesson to the informed that laws need to follow society, not try to force society before the culture is ready or you get lawlessness and empowerment of organized crime. The left still gets that backwards and thinks the law should lead society.
- Twenty-First Amendment: this repealed prohibition. Since the left hates giving up government power over our lives, they converted the anti-Alcohol cops and regulations into the DEA and Anti-Drug and Guns instead. The conservatives/right demand we enforce the laws we put on the books. But it's usually the controlling left/Democrats that demand those laws be put on the books. The other aspect of this is the anti-tobacco movements were popular with temperance leftists, and most of our anti-smoking laws also sprung out of this movement
| Issue | Lie | Truth |
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| Eighteenth Amendment | The left doesn't trust individuals to rule themselves, so they sold society that gun-control for alcohol (prohibition) and outlawing individual liberty would change people's behavior. It didn't. And since this was the progressive era, where people were ignoring Historical warnings on federal overreach, they were making many modifications to the Constitution. This anti-conservative/anti-individualism amendment got passed as leading us to a better society. | It succeeded at empowering criminals, creating a profitable black market, teaching contempt for the law and dramatically increased crime. Which gave the left excuses to empower the federal government more to combat the lawlessness, and start gun control over the insurrection that the left had created. It disempowering the law abiding, and turned otherwise good citizens into criminals. Basically it ruined far more lives that it ever helped. The progressive left got the change they wanted, and as is too common, it was a disaster. |
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❝ Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. |
History
The Eighteenth Amendment was the result of decades of effort by the temperance movement in the United States and at the time was generally considered a progressive amendment. It was part of Women's empowerment -- since Women bore the brunt of domestic abuse and layabout drunkard Husbands, it was basically their view that if they took away the alcohol, that everything would be better. It wasn't.
If you look at the tools used, it was a typical progressive leftist movement:
- they lied to the masses about how much better things would be, if you gave them the power to take away others liberty: it would cure poverty, relationship problems, it would make families happier, and fewer industrial accidents. The world would be a better place
- that the group knew more than the individuals who made the wrong choices
- they had all sorts of fake experts using appeals to authority and celebrities using appeals to popularity
- they used violence and vandalism to show how outraged they were
- they weren't happy with state bans (23 of 48 states had restrictions), it needed to be national fascism to work. Ignore the state/local indicators that it wouldn't work: trust them
And we got what we usually get from progressive laws: an opportunity to grow from our "how not to" lesson.
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