Prohibition

[mindstalk]

I've long wondered, if alcohol consumption is so widespread, how the 18th Amendment ever passed -- 2/3 of Congress and 3/4 of states. On reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volstead_Act it seems one aspect might be people expecting that liquor would be banned, gin and whisky and such, rather than all drinks; the Volstead Act limiting alcohol content to 0.5% was reportedly a big surprise.

OTOH Congress still had to write and pass that law, by a big enough margin to override a presidential veto, so there's still some mystery. Were 2/3 of Congress teetotalers?

Comments

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

Looking at the roll-calls, it seems like the number of non-voting Senators and Representatives was fairly high (especially in the House), so maybe that has something to do with it. Repealing it would be near-impossible even if the non-voters were overwhelmingly opposed.

I think a bigger factor may have been the political influence of the Temperance movement, which definitely had a lot of power over who could win party nominations. Many probably voted it through despite reservations for fear of being primaried. We see the same dynamic today.

Also, it's possible that they didn't read the bills back then, either.

[elusiveat]

Maybe partly because laws aren't scary for violators who don't expect to have the laws enforced against *them*?

[kgbooklog]

I saw a book a few years ago that argued Prohibition was a complete success at what it was intended to do (shut down the saloons). It may have been "A Short History of Drunkenness" by Mark Forsyth.