One would have thought that they would have died off with the passage of the 21st Amendment, a political party dedicated to the prohibition of alcohol would have died off, but apparently they’re still around:
NEW YORK - If you’ve never seen a presidential candidate dressed as the Grim Reaper, you might consider a visit to Bourbon Street in New Orleans this summer, when Gene Amondson goes out to rally support for his campaign. Amondson, a 64-year-old ordained minister, is the presidential not-very-hopeful of the Prohibition Party, the United States’ oldest third party, which has nominated a presidential candidate in every election since 1872.
This season is no different. Despite a rift between factions and the party’s minuscule following — it has about 30 members — it will again field a candidate. The Prohibitionists carry on, even though they know that they won’t win the elections or even be able to vote for themselves in most states.
The Prohibition Party, founded in 1869, never ranked as one of the country’s strongest political groups. Still, it was once a force to be reckoned with. In 1904 and 1908, more than a quarter-million people voted for Prohibitionist candidates, and from 1917 until 1921, party member Sidney Catts served as governor of Florida. The passage of the 18th Amendment, which outlawed the production and sale of alcohol in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933, marked the party’s heyday, or as members like to say: “America’s best 13 years.”
The party today consists of a dwindling number of dedicated members. Some of them believe that Jesus turned water into grape juice, not wine. They cite unsubstantiated statistics about the correlation between alcohol and crime and issue catchy statements such as “Responsible drinking is like teaching a pig to eat with a spoon . . . won’t work
My how………..quaint.
H/T: Third Party Watch
