I should probably shut-up about this, but those gentle-folk over at MADD piss me off so I'm writing about it, again.
Back in elementary school, we all learned there were two ways to pass a law. The first was by representation: we elect a guy by democratic means and he goes to a thing called a "congress" where they vote by democratic means and make laws. Pretty straight forward, there's no problem there.
The second way to pass a law is by direct action: we put an issue on a ballot and we each vote "yay" or "nay" and the law passes or it doesn't. Again, very straight forward, no problem.
We actually have two chances to do this. First at the state level, then again at the federal level. That's how it's supposed to work. That's called Democracy and that's how it actually does work for everybody, except Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
There actually is no national drinking age, because it's a state issue. MADD couldn't get the job done that way though. They couldn't get even conservative, anti-drinking states like Mississippi to raise their drinking age by accepted, democratic means...so MADD came up with another plan.
Hold on there big fella, are you saying that MADD consciously circumvented our beloved democratic process to get their law passed? You win or lose! Fair is Fair, Right? NOBODY gets around the process, not even the communists! ...And yet, that's exactly what MADD did.
Unable to get their law passed at the state level, and unwilling to accept defeat, MADD made a deal in congress where lawmakers made it mandatory that any state who wished to receive federal highway funds, MUST raise their state drinking age to twenty-one. Otherwise, they would be federally mandated to maintain their interstate highways without the benefit of federal funding.
See--that way, federal lawmakers aren't directly responsible for the law. They pass the buck on down to the state level. At the state level, lawmakers were obliged to change the law, but could avoid taking responsibility for it by blaming the federal highway fund mandate.
In other words, nobody faced this issue directly and voted yes or no in a way we the people could hold them responsible for it. MADD crapped all over our beloved constitution and democratic ideal so they could have their way--is this how mothers should act? Only if you use the word "mother" immediately followed by the word "fucker".
Recently, The Amethyst Initiative lost two of its original signers due to pressure from MADD. When I say pressure, I mean real pressure. Signers of the initiative report getting hundreds of MADD sponsored emails, demanding they change their position. Laura Dean-Mooney, the president of MADD sent out untold thousands of printed letters and email asking parents to withdraw their children from colleges where the dean or chancelor signed the Amethyst Initiative.
The good news is, our side lost two members, but gained fifteen. The count now stands at one hundred twenty-three signers of the Amethyst Initiative and about a zillion people cheering them on. Including me. Go TEAM!
2 comments:
Apparently you have never been MADD enough to do whatever you had to do to get drunk drivers off the road because they were too stupid to do it themselves. Apparently you have never had to bury a child or 12 year old friend because they were run over at the bus stop in front of your eyes by a drunk driver at 6:30 in the MORNING. Apparently you have never had to watch your family be destroyed by little bottless of liquid. No, apparently you haven't because if you had you would realize that YES, this is how mothers should act. They should and will do ANYTHING to make sure that their children are safe in their beds at night and not six feet under ground because a stupid "adult" thought it was more important to fight over a drinking age and his/her right to drink liquid poison.
People, even children, die under needless senseless conditions every day, but that doesn't give anybody the right to circumvent the constitution.
If what MADD wanted was so reasonable and so logical then they shouldn't have had any problems getting the necessary votes to raise the drinking age at the state level, but not even one state was willing to do so.
These people have positioned themselves as the victims so they can do whatever the heck they want and the ends justify the means and that's bullshit. We are a nation of law--not a nation of intimidation and dirty tricks like MADD uses.
If a child gets run over at a bus stop, we already have laws to deal with that. Lots of them!
Reckless endangerment, vehicular homicide, manslaughter and many more all of which carry very stiff penalties up to and including life in prison and all of those laws were passed before MADD was in existence.
Part of living in a fee society is that you learn to accept defeat sometimes when your side doesn't have the votes to get what they want.
Democracy is not looking for loopholes or going around the system so you can still get what you want anyway.
Post a Comment