Episode 328: No Bourbon, No Scotch and No Beer Pt 2 of Just Say No America

This week Host Dave Bledsoe demands a national prohibition on his bar tabs, only to be voted down by the bartender with extreme prejudice. (Again) On the show this week, we talk about how Prohibition was more about keeping immigrants and minorities in their place rather than saving them from demon alcohol. (Are you shocked? You shouldn’t be)

Along the way we learn about Dave’s grandpa running moonshine in the mountains of Tennessee and why that makes Dave think he should run a distillery. (It doesn’t and he shouldn’t) Then we dive right into the history of how Prohibition became the law of the land and how the same tactics are being used today. After that we look at how all this not drinking impacted our most precious national resource: rich people. (Short answer not at all, longer answer, it made them more money!) Finally we examine the connection between the Noble Cause of Prohibition and keeping immigrants, minorities and the poor in their place. (The Venn Diagram is a perfect circle.)

Our Sponsor this week is Fast Eddie’s Bathtub Gin, the small batch artisanal gin that tastes like it was made in a Queens used car lot bathroom, because it was. We open the show with newsreel footage of the government taking down the bootleggers and close with Larry Lacerte reading Dave’s bar tabs.

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Closing Music: https://youtu.be/XNmk_uK05dY

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Citations Needed:

Wayne B. Wheeler: The Man Who Turned Off the Taps

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/wayne-b-wheeler-the-man-who-turned-off-the-taps-14783512/

Anti-Saloon League Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Saloon_League

Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Prohibition as Class Warfare

https://offtheleash.net/2017/12/19/prohibition-as-class-warfare/

The Chemist’s War The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.

https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/the-little-told-story-of-how-the-u-s-government-poisoned-alcohol-during-prohibition.html

More Class Warfare: The Real Point of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition)

https://angrybearblog.com/2015/06/more-class-warfare-the-real-point-of-the-18th-amendment-prohibition

Xenophobia, Racism and Classism: The Sinister Roots of America’s Prohibition

https://www.winemag.com/2021/03/08/history-american-prohibition/

Uncited Additional Reading: 

https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/why-prohibition-happened/

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-prohibition-1779250

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK216414/

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/alcohol-prohibition-was-failure

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/26/lawless-prohibition-gangsters-speakeasies

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