LAWS NEED ACCEPTENCE TO WORK

I am often amazed by people who seem to believe that the mere passing of a law will cure the social ills of the world. The failure of prohibition has proven that this approach does not work. The real reason we gave up the 55 mile an hour speed limit was the police saying that there were so many violators that they could not enforce the laws. Yet MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) persists in insisting that a 21 year old drinking age will solve the problem of Binge Drinking. The fact that we have had a 21 year old drinking age for many years and Binge Drinking continues to be a problem has no effect on their belief that their approach works.

The problem is that there are too many people who operate on belief rather than evidence. They let their beliefs govern policy decisions and win arguments because they claim to be looking out for a greater good. The problem with this approach is that it often leads to more problems than it solves. There was a study of prohibition that found that many people started drinking during that era because they were told that they couldn’t [I wish I could remember where I read this]. I do know that I grew up in an era when New York and Louisiana were the only states with an 18 year old drinking age. Most of us didn’t even think of Binge Drinking because we could get a drink any time we wanted one. There was no “Forbidden Fruit” aspect to the consumption of alcohol. There was no sense of getting away with something.

When MADD quotes the statistics from the era of the lower drinking age are they adjusting the data for the fact that there were differing drinking ages in different states? This fact alone could account for many of the drunken driving deaths. For example: Pennsylvania never lowered its drinking age; New Jersey had a 19 year old drinking age and New York had an 18 year old drinking age. Pennsylvania kids would cross the border to either New York or New Jersey to drink. Then they would drive home and get into accidents. If they had been allowed to drink in Pennsylvania they might have stayed in someone’s home and never have been on the road. In addition there is a high likelihood that they might have had less to drink because it was legally available. Add to this that fear of getting caught drinking illegally often dissuades those who get into medical trouble through drinking from seeking help for themselves or their friends.

Looking at all of this convinces me that maintaining a 21 year old drinking age is an effort in futility. In addition, maintaining this artificially high age may actually exacerbate the problem. Remember, laws only work when the people they apply to believe in them.

Once Again the Lesser of Two Evils

As I sit here reviewing e-mails from both the Obama and McCain camps I wonder how a nation of 300 million people can be faced with the choice of either continuing what has proven to be a catastrophic administration or returning the nation to the doldrums of the Carter administration. Why do I believe that these are our choices? It is simple:

1. Sen. McCain has already said that he will continue Bush’s Iraq war policies and he has also proposed that Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are his answer to our economic problems. Even when he had disagreed with Bush we find that McCain’s position has shifted to meet Bush’s. The move to allow off-shore drilling is an example of this. So a vote for McCain ends up being a vote for DubbaYa.

2. Regarding Sen. Obama I believe Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) said it best when he was asked why he, as a black man, was supporting Sen. Clinton in the NY primary. His answer was [as I paraphrase it] “… a president does not act alone; A president relies on experts for advice... I know who is in Hillary’s Rolodex. I don’t know who is in Obama’s…” Looking at Sen. Obama’s appointments it looks as if he is using Jimmy Carter’s Rolodex. The Carter administration was the Democratic equivalent of the DubbaYa years. Does Obama really believe that following the Carter ways will help America? It is the Carter years that brought about the Reagan revolution. I fear a repeat of the Carter legacy could lead us to something like “The Limbaugh Regression.”

All I can say at this point is “Wake Up Barack, You said you wanted change. Why are you bringing us back to disaster?