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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Drunk with power |
| 2016-01-11 |
| h/t Instapundit If they think about Prohibition at all, most Americans probably accept Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter's conclusion that it was a farce, a "ludicrous caricature of the reforming impulse," an ineffective albeit financially costly moral crusade imposed on a reluctant populace. Decades later, Harvard University historian Lisa McGirr is here to tell us that not only is this widespread view misguided, it has led us to believe wrongly that the threat and consequences of Prohibition were trivial and short-lived. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #6 IIRC, one of the key steps before passing Prohibition was to pass the income tax. Before the income tax, excise taxes on liquor were a major source of revenue for the Feds. They passed the income tax, then passed Prohibition. After Prohibition was repealed, the income tax stayed. It became a major source of income, and gave the Feds great power to manipulate society, by rewarding "good" things like home ownership. It has recently become a tool to silence political opponents. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2016-01-11 16:15 |
| #5 What the author left unsaid is that, with the decline of mainline protestant churches, the Left and the Democrat party appropriated the mantle of moral authority and are declaring the Prohibition of guns, "bad-think". and the public statement of "hurtful" truths. |
| Posted by: ptah 2016-01-11 14:05 |
| #4 One of the large steps in the growth of centralized, federal gov't power. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2016-01-11 11:02 |
| #3 For a minority of people, ethanol is an addictive drug. For the rest, a mild euphoric. Imposing the protection of that minority on the majority provided an object lesson on human mature. Bartender, another please. |
| Posted by: Sven the pelter 2016-01-11 09:59 |
| #2 Anything can be overthought. The results are never pretty. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-01-11 09:10 |
| #1 I seldom pay much mind to the opinions of academia regarding politics or the evils of society. National Socialism was not birthed in the ranks of the Wehrmacht. It's origins are found in academia where attempts were being made to find alternatives for capitalism and communism. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-01-11 08:50 |