If there were an issue where you could stand for liberty, provoke a constitutional fight with the Federal Government, and drive a big fat wedge between Wendy Davis and her core supporters, would you take it?!?
Greg Abbott should support lowering the drinking age.
This issue is a winner on multiple levels.
It's good policy that advances the cause of liberty. Whether or not you support drinking alcohol, it's hard to deny that nanny-state laws regulating alcohol consumption create more problems than they solve. The 21 drinking age promotes 'pre-gaming,' a dangerous practice that correlates with negative consequences (including death).
On a constitutional level, it forces the Federal Government to defend an unconstitutional practice. The Federal Government currently enforces the drinking age by holding state highway funding hostage. This is unconstitutional. Picking a fight on these grounds could possibly undermine Medicaid. Personally, Cahnman's Musings would love to see Barack Obama forced to defend the constitutionality of the 21 drinking age.
Where this gets interesting, however, is the politics. College students are Wendy Davis' core constituency, and the drinking age is their primary interaction with Big Government. Unfortunately, the other day, Wendy Davis was named a 'legislative' champion' by MADD. This past legislative session, Senator Davis authored a bill to legalize mandatory sobriety checkpoints in Texas. Forcing Wendy Davis to reveal her inner authoritarian on a issue near and dear to millennialls is fantastic politics.
Lowering the drinking age would be good for Texas, bad for Washington D.C., and fantastic for Greg Abbott's campaign.
And along comes Tom Pauken with a proposal to keep it where it's at ...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget: It's Primary season. It's healthy for Republicans to debate REPUBLICANS during this time. Not Democrats.