Prohibition Synthesis Essay

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People fought and argued for several years in an attempt to get all alcoholic beverages banned from the public of the United States, claiming that doing so would create a safer nation, however when this bill was passed by Congress in 1920, the crime rate doubled and no one could have foresaw the future corruption of the nation that this seemingly great bill had caused. These unintended consequences wreaked havoc for over a decade and it wasn’t until the repeal of prohibition in 1933 that the United States recovered from a horribly devastating era and became a better and improved place to live. The 21st amendment truly shows the power and impact the public actually has on the government, because the public during the prohibition era exercised their right to fight for their freedom to drink when the government got too involved and tried to restrict those rights, their fight ended in a victory and they even had a previous amendment to the Constitution repealed which has, still to this day, never happened in the history of the United States. The thought that Prohibition would have a positive effect on society, and that once it was in full effect everything would turn out peachy, was around long before America adopted this theory as an amendment. The Anti-Saloon League was formed in 1893 and it became one of the strongest leading political forces in the national ban of alcohol. The public of America believed that everything would turn out just wonderful if alcohol was banned, because that’s what society was telling them, and they didn’t care to look into, or think all of the unintended consequences, because the government didn’t care to look into it either. Prohibition was no doubt a respectable idea, getting drunks to abandon drinking... ... middle of paper ... ...ws that even though a bill may “save” or elevate our “morals” and increase “safety” in a nation, and that even though the government is really pushing a certain bill and or amendment it might not be the best choice. People need to spend more time looking for the unintended consequences of each bill, rather than the obvious ones, because 90% of the time the expected consequences never turn out the way they are expected. All that the citizens of America have to remember is History, because that’s all we have to remember and look back on and reflect upon, and the 21st amendment is something that the citizens of America should never forget, the government officials need to be reminded of who put them in office, and who gave them the power to make the choices that the people want them to make, not what choices their little group of officials want to make for the people.

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