Lowering the Drinking Age

Posted on August 25, 2008
Filed Under Public Policy |

UPDATE: I forgot to post this link to a post on PETA that I really liked, sent by a frequent commenter who shares my head shaking disbelief at PETA’s tactics.

At first my reflexive response was against the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18 but after some thought I think I can support this initiative. Consider the facts, we treat 18-20 year olds as adults in every other capacity, why not on this point as well? Prohibition of alcohol for 18-20 year olds hasn’t worked any better than for the broader population in the 1920’s and it may well be resulting in unintended consequences like binge drinking.

Unfortunately, MADD appears to be taking a dogmatic scorched earth approach to this idea instead of engaging in objective debate, reinforcing the notion that these groups are not simply in favor of beneficial social change but are simply put, anti-alcohol in any form. PETA is simply about better treatment for animals, they are hostile to anyone who likes to eat meat, and a wide range of environmental groups are not simply for enhancing the environment, they are anti-human contact with environment. The Brady Campaign also comes to mind, having strayed from simply preventing gun violence to being completely anti-gun.

Ultimately these groups become their own worst enemies because their anti-fill-in-the-blank approach results in their political currency being depleted. Witness the Brady Campaign, despite two decades of work they have little to show for it and this generation of politicians don’t even want to talk about gun control, especially following the Heller decision. MADD risks being ejected into the same political wilderness by taking on the opponents that they have.

What happens when presidents from more than 100 of the nation’s best-known colleges call on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18? Well, a brigade of hyperbolic mommies start screaming at them, that’s what.

[From Let's chuck the drinking age - The Denver Post]

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