This year on December 5th America will have a chance to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Repeal of Prohibition. I thought I would post 4 reasons why Repeal Day should become a national holiday.
No. 4: Prohibition hurt the American economy. In 1925, years before the stock market crash, farmers were devestated by falling grain prices - grain that could have been sold to brewers and distillers. Most historians see this as the first sign of the Great Depression. Besides shutting down distilleries, breweries and saloons, glass makers, label printers shippers and others also lost business during prohibition.
No. 3: People lost respect for the law. Most people did not support prohibition and saw people who broght illegal spirits into the country as heros and police who tried to stop them as villans. This is a very bad precident to set.
No.2: Most people did not support prohibition. Not only the soldiers fighting in Europe loose out on a chance to even vote, prohibition points out a flaw in the constitution if you think majority rules. It takes 3/4 of the states to ratify an admendment, but if New York votes against and Idaho, North and South Dakota vote for it, the latter three votes cancel New Yorks vote even though their population is equal to about on county in New York.
No.1: The 18th Amendment is the only amendment to the constitution to take away a right instead of guaranteeing a freedom. The constitution should protect people's rights, not limit their freedoms so the prohibition amendment was just fundamentally wrong.