19. The Political Victory of a Minority Over a Majority
Prohibition is the best example in American history of a minority that successfully leveraged its clout to ram through laws opposed by a clear majority. The Anti-Saloon League, the country’s premier anti-alcohol lobby, never sought to gain majorities. The ASL knew that “Wets”, those opposed to prohibition in the parlance of the day, greatly outnumbered the “Dries” who wanted to do away with alcohol. Instead, prohibition’s proponents reasoned that by controlling, say, 10% of the vote in any close race, they could decide the election.
To gather that 10%, the ASL turned to America’s literalist protestant churches, who in turn turned out their congregations to vote for ASL-approved candidates. A small but committed base of single-issue voters could be extremely powerful. It did not take long for politicians, whether Democrats or Republicans – including those who drank life fish – to realize that it was unwise to antagonize the ASL. Soon, politicians were elbowing each other out of the way to demonstrate their fealty to the ASL.
