Why is the US drinking age 21? And how did it happen? In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox’s Phil Edwards explores the history of the somewhat unusual way the drinking age became 21.
After Prohibition, the total ban on alcohol, many states established a minimum legal drinking age of 21. But that began to change after the voting age was lowered to 18. Lots of states followed by lowering their drinking ages, which changed the landscape for the entire country.
By the 1980s, this unusual patchwork of drinking ages started to be seen as a problem, especially by activist organizations like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and RID (Remove Intoxicated Drivers). They lobbied for a 21-year-old minimum legal drinking age, and President Ronald Reagan supported the cause. His mechanism for enabling a national law? Threatening to withhold federal highway funding to states that didn’t comply.
It was an unpredictable strategy for an official typically hesitant to use federal power over the states, and the practice was eventually challenged in the Supreme Court, where it was upheld.
Beyond the political clash, it’s a look at how roads shape policy. Watch the above video to see how it happened.
aarrtee on June 17th, 2020 at 02:07 UTC »
MADD... Mothers Against Drunk Drivers pushed for this
the politicians responded if they wanted to be re-elected.
Ethereal_Guide on June 17th, 2020 at 00:32 UTC »
People just drove from PA to NJ to drink.
GRCooper on June 17th, 2020 at 00:31 UTC »
It was kind of weird. I was grandfathered and could buy beer at 18 (not liquor), but friends just a few months younger had to wait until they were 21.
One friend made the grandfather cutoff by two days ...
Edit: lots of questions about it so, this is what "grandfathered" means.