Prohibition of alcohol is the only part of the Constitution enacted for a specific policy [FN1] & then voided a few years later by subsequent amendment. [FN2] Prohibition has long stood as an example of a policy that worked, but not as intended, for a few groups. 1/13

F Scott Fitzgerald solemnly wrote: “So, with one hand on the Eighteenth Amendment and the other hand on the serious part of the Constitution, I have taken an oath that I will tell somebody my story.” [FN3] If a fiction writer’s slam of prohibition falls short, consider fiction. 2/13

The series “Boardwalk Empire” is set in 1919 & opens w/officials planning to make vast sums of money from what was later called “bootlegging.” [FN4] Fiction is a good fit for the latest twist of a trump administration that renders the adjective “absurd” inadequate. 3/13

Russia’s man posted: “RAGING ALCOHOLICS everywhere ... Families destroyed, productivity GONE ...” trump suggests maybe “seriously look at the 18th Amendment prohibition, to ban alcohol permanently.” America was better “before the drinking culture took over.” 4/13

Prohibition has lasted for well over 100 years. In that time we have seen that problems usually associated w/consumption are exacerbated by forcing people to obtain their substance of choice from the illicit market that thrives in such illegality. “Rap sheets” bar people 5/13

from jobs or education, people dodge treatment, the mob makes a ton of money, people die from impurities in unregulated substances. Since drugs were made illegal near the start of the 20th century, that’s been the story. I’ll flip trump’s suggestion: 6/13

We should repeal prohibition of all drugs. The 15 years of Prohibition were not the greatest for the USA. The first couple of years the country was in recovery from WW1. Agriculture was gutted and farming communities slammed, but not by “drinking culture.” 7/13

A James Carville quote is apt: it was the economy, stupid. The Great Depression closed out those “dry” years. trump’s not a student - of history or much else. There are at least three reasons that, I believe, we will not see Prohibition of booze: 8/13

1) People will balk at such an absurd suggestion; 2) the Secretary of War! (Huh, What Is It Good for) will have a major aspect of his life impaired (& dt’s are not cool w/an idiot who has access to nukes) and 3) The NFL playoffs are upon us. 9/13

I did not count the number of times that commercials for the movie about TWFLOTUSSMJB aired during playoff games. [FN5] If they’re going to keep showing that shit, people really will need a bag on. Really. 10/13

Footnotes:
FN1. Amend XVIII, sec 1, in relevant part: “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation from the[U.S.] ...is hereby prohibited...” ratified 1/16/1919. 11/13

FN2. Amend XXI, sec 1: “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.” ratified 12/5/1933.
FN3. “F Scott Fitzgerald in His Own Time,” (1971), p. 215, orig published as “What I Think and Feel at 25,” American Magazine, Sept 1922. 12/13

FN4. “Boardwalk Empire” was a series about prohibition.
FN5. Worst First Lady Since Mrs James Buchanan. 13/13