WHO’S YOU, ME, US AND THEM GUYS?

By Edwin Cooney

A little less than a week ago, I was offered the opportunity to lecture on an event that happened ninety years ago. President Herbert Hoover called it “A Noble Experiment.” We know it as Prohibition.

As I see it, whether it was a success or a failure (and not even I would categorize it a success) is almost beside the point. The important lessons of any era or movement have to do with what we can and should learn about the conditions that existed which controlled the decision-making process of the time even more than the decisions themselves.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which made the manufacture, transportation or sale of intoxicating liquors unlawful, and the Volstead Act, which funded the enforcement of the new law, were made at a time when religious fundamentalism prevailed over science and dominated the American body politic. Nevertheless, the knee jerk tendency we moderns too often give in to, that of simple condemnation, is little more than arrogant self-aggrandizement.

The main flaw with Prohibition was that its determined leadership had little knowledge of the people it was expected to control. There were three forces behind Prohibition: the Evangelical Protestant church; the social reformers of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union; and the purely political pressure of the Anti-Saloon League. These three forces were fueled by the mores of rural America with its limited education and awareness as well as its subsequent ill-informed and unrepresentative political structure.

As asserted above, the lessons of Prohibition go beyond the pressure politics in both parties of the Anti-Saloon League, the prejudices of the Evangelical Protestant churches, and the increasing effectiveness of the Reform Movement. The real question (which was clearly ignored by proponents of Prohibition) was who were the American people?

Even more, proponents of Prohibition failed to anticipate the trouble they’d face and the amount of money they’d be compelled to spend enforcing the Volstead Act. Keep in mind that most Republicans and Democrats (Socialists and some Progressives being the exceptions) opposed big government. Yet, the lack of big government organization is one of the main reasons “The Noble Experiment” -- which lasted from Saturday, January 17th, 1920 until Tuesday, December 5th, 1933 -- had to be abandoned.

Today we are at a similar cross roads. For nearly a year we’ve argued the desirability of health care reform. Each angry exchange in the debate is led by people who insist that they understand “the real America.”

Some of us insist that the real America is made up of the legitimately angry taxpayer whose taxes -- which are already “criminally” too high -- will inevitably be raised to pay for an inefficient government bureaucracy. Others insist that the real America is primarily the consumer whose legitimate right to quality health care is cruelly hampered by rich, greedy insurance and pharmaceutical executives and stockholders.

Certainly both of these arguments have plenty of constituents. Who then should prevail? Should the majority or the educated, the conscientious or the enterprising win the national debate?

Back in the days when Wayne Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League was marshaling his angry forces against “daemon rum,” there was no effective Anti-Prohibition organization with a sufficient advertising or political pressure arm to equal that of Wheeler’s Anti- Saloon League. Beer brewers and saloon owners were successfully linked to our German enemies of World War I. Beer was called “Kaiser Brew.” Saloon owners were “home wreckers.” In fact, most Americans spent their whole lives disconnected from the struggles of the increasing number of Catholic, Jewish, and liturgical Protestant immigrants filling our urban areas who would resist Prohibition. In 1920, white Anglo-Saxon America didn’t comprehend how much in common it would ultimately share with these new people whose sons and daughters would soon be their grandchildren’s teachers, policemen, firemen, and even their spouses. In short, America was hardly in touch with itself. Hence, its “Noble Experiment” was conducted with the wrong ingredients — and had to be abandoned.

Now it is sophisticated America’s turn to tackle its social and economic problems. What are they? Is health care the fundamental issue facing Americans today or is it merely symptomatic of who we are? Are we merely the victims of large and powerful warring factions or are we the compliant soldiers of these divisive factions? Do we prefer the comfort of opinion to the agony of disinterested but well-informed thought and examination? Or, do we too often give way to political bromides that reinforce our fears whether real or imagined?

Despite our current dilemmas, we Americans have much for which to be grateful. As I see it, one of the greatest gifts currently at our disposal is the man we elected President of the United States a little more than a year ago. As we express our frustrations, he listens. While we rail at one another, he ponders. As we fret about our future, he coolly takes stock of the resources at our command to master it.

Like you and me, Barack Obama is imperfect. Unlike many of us however, he’s keenly aware of the imperfections in his thoughts and conclusions and seeks the counsel of his fellow citizens.

Even better than many of us, President Barack Hussein Obama knows who he is.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY