HARDLY SURPRISING, CONSIDERING THAT IT WAS ONE OF AMERICA’S BIGGEST SOCIAL-POLICY DISASTERS, AND WE ALL KNOW WHERE THOSE TEND TO COME FROM: “The truth is that Prohibition, in its essence, was a deeply progressive movement. Thus, for example, the forces of women’s liberation backed Prohibition—and the suffragettes were backed in turn by the Temperance Union, whose support (in the certainty that women would vote to outlaw liquor) helped gain women the vote. The goo-goos, the good-government types, similarly aided Prohibition, seeking to purge the rows of rowdy saloons that cluttered the major cities of America—and they enlisted the help of the Prohibitionists to create a national income tax, ending the federal government’s dependence on liquor taxes.”