Ken Burns Compares Tea Partiers to Prohibitionists

[Visfen]

For someone to understand that policy has uninteded consequnces but yet still support pretty much everything the government does is just a huge mental disconnect in my opinion.

The tea party if anything are the anti-prohibitions, the people who want less government can certainly not be compared to those who want government to control even our alcohol consumption.

If the tea party has any uniting element it would be libertarian, and that goes against prohibition.

[cjfilmproductions]

@Visfen you do understand that a libertarian society exist in mogadishu.why dont you move there?

Libertarianism is a rejection of civilized society.a bunch of idiots who never mentally developed beyond the rebellious dont tell me what to do even to my own detriment phase.....i dont believe in prohibition but i cant get behind letting houses burn and letting people dies so that some idiot can be free to rob people.

[Visfen]

@cjfilmproductions bunch of idiots? 40% of MENSA is libertarian. I'm a double major triple nine society member. Libertarians are the smartest people I know. There's a reason it is the most over-represented ideology among people with higher degrees.

Mogadishu is not a libertarian place. Hong Kong and Singapore are though.

Freedom is what is civilized, towing down to some cultist state is what is uncivilized. Maybe you need to believe in the religion of the state, but I don't.

[cjfilmproductions]

@Visfen educated doesn't necessarily Equal intelligence and smarts..plenty of dumb ass idiots have degrees....freedom does not Mean the freedom to be taken advantage of by anyone with a buck.

[Visfen]

@cjfilmproductions yeah, I'm sure you're much better of with a low IQ and no education.

Yes it does. It means the responsibility for your own actions and not to blame the consequences on someone else. It's also called being an adult. If you make a bad deal, then that's your fault.

Though fraud is illegal by libertarian principles, I would hope you know at least that much.

[malcolmxray]

@cjfilmproductions You obviously don't understand the distinction between libertarianism and anarchy. Or maybe you do and deliberately conflate them to further your statist agenda.

[choomanfoo]

Maybe you're a cop, a prison guard or a politician who's scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, kick-backs or those regular fat bribes? But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies and marauding thugs brandishing gold-plated AK-47s & vats of acid? - Prohibition prevents Regulation. You can choose to help us stop this abomination.

[Riclists]

This dweeb changes his tune depending on who he's talking to. He's an attention whore with no substance.

[DanzHanzen]

Wow this is the most partisan i've heard him ever. The temperance movement reminds me of the green movement today right down to the indoctrination.

[matt605]

Misandrist pornography.

Prohibition could succeed today because law enforcement is so much stronger.

Homeland securitity can find a suitcase bomb, so a barrell of rum is no challenge, and a barrell of cocaine or heroin is much more lucrative. Key is-- don't outlaw all alcohol. Beer, wine, and expensive liquors okay. Cheap liquor? Tax it prohibitively. The whole story above is wrong.

Say you're for cheap liquor, okay. But don't say Prohibition can't be done.

[barb0875]

I had a lot of respect for Ken Burns, that is , until I heard this rant! Perhaps he is just pandering to THE liberal talking head--Bill Maher, but he just made me realize that possibly watching his documentaries may be like watching Michael Moore's "documentaries". I guess that people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and the others who founded our country were single issue guys, that he rants about. For the record, we are against ILLEGAL immigration. ILLEGAL!

[reginaDexant]

JOIN THE REVOLUTION-RON PAUL 2012!!!!

[RudeDoggGomez]

WoW Ken ! ... its unbelievable alright !! So, you think that the Tea Party moniker isn't a direct reference to the"Boston Tea Party?" You are an authentic dumbocrat..... a misdirected director. Go to Heaven; instead

[mowriter]

@RudeDoggGomez LOL LOL. You should actually try reading a history book. You'll find the actual tea party stole corporate-owned tea and threw it into the bay. The Wall Street protesters are closer to the actual Tea Party than this modern party of medicare recipients calling for the end of government health care. Let that last point sink in for a minute...

[choomanfoo]

Ken Burns, it's so sad you're unable to see the parallels between alcohol prohibition and marijuana/heroin/cocaine etc prohibition

During alcohol prohibition, all profits went to enrich thugs and criminals. Young men died every day on inner-city streets while battling over turf. A fortune was wasted on enforcement that could have gone on education etc. On top of the budget-busting prosecution and incarceration costs, billions in taxes were lost. Finally the economy collapsed. Sound familiar?

[zeldafreak701]

@choomanfoo No because the difference is that marijuana was never legal in the United States and that alcohol was legal. Alcohol was also a staple in American society and was used by everyone while marijuana isn't, as much as people that use it say that it is. So no, I respectfully disagree.

[choomanfoo]

@zeldafreak701, your ignorance is astounding:

In 1619 Jamestown colony law declared that all settlers were required to grow hemp. George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon as one of his three primary crops. The use of hemp for rope and fabric was ubiquitous throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

Medicinal preparations of cannabis became available in American pharmacies in the 1850s following an introduction to its use in Western medicine by William O'Shaughnessy a decade earlier in 1839

[toker53]

Never realized how ignorant this man was until now. Not about this topic but his ideology. Nobody I know is against immigration, they are against illegal immigration. He's an assbag for making the parallel and the poster is as well. He's right that prohibition didn't work, how that ties to the Tea Party People is pretty fucking thin at best sounds Marxist to me. He is the ultimate Liberal Lefty who hates everyone who disagreed with his philosophy. Thankfully he wont be down for breakfast.

[LeighMet]

@toker53 You see back in the 1910's 20's and 30's a good portion of this country was against legal immigration.