You've heard about the conservative effort to repeal the 14th Amendment. It's never going to happen -- three-quarters of Congress and two-thirds of the states would need to get behind it -- but it sure does serve one purpose: Riling up the Republican base about illegal immigrants coming to America.Liberals deserve a similar cause, and I propose that it's time to re-repeal the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the sale of liquor in the United States. Sure, this amendment was overturned in 1933, but that's neither here nor there; remember, these efforts aren't about changing actual policy. In the case of the 14th Amendment, so-called anchor babies -- i.e. "little terrorists" -- aren't actually allowing immigrants to become citizens, which is the over-hyped rationale for ending birthright citizenship. There's no need to worry about the facts when politics is on the line.
Clearly, there's a lot of uncertainty about our Constitution, activist judges, and the Republican agenda of promising to repeal anything they think confers a political advantage. (Remember, uncertainty is a term that can mean almost anything.)
What we need is a clear signal that lame-duck members of Congress aren't going to go ahead and prohibit our right to drink after the midterm elections. Worse, activist conservative judges, concerned about the reach of the commerce clause, might decide to overturn the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th. In the words of Laurence Tribe, the 21st Amendment's regulation of interstate beverage commerce is one of "only two ways, in which an ordinary private citizen ... can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave someone, a suitably hellish act. The other is to bring a bottle of beer, wine, or bourbon into a State in violation of its beverage control laws -- an act that might have been thought juvenile, and perhaps even lawless, but unconstitutional?"
In their zeal to protect private citizens from the grubby fingers of government, conservatives could repeal the 21st Amendment, unintentionally throwing the United States back into prohibition. Is this likely? No! Can I raise money off of it? Absolutely. If you're worried about conservative efforts to keep you from drinking all the booze you can legally stomach, please send a check to Friends of Tim Fernholz for Re-Repealing Prohibition, c/o The American Prospect. The next time you enjoy a glass of whiskey or a cold beer at the end of long day, you'll be glad you did.
Frankly, there may be some criticism from those who trust Washington politicians to support long-standing pillars of civic consensus. But what are opponents of "tinkering" afraid of? I suspect sullying the genius of the Founders takes a distant backseat to their real fear: being outgunned in the sport of demagoguing populist nonsense.
-- Tim Fernholz
