videogamer
Banned
A schism in the party has two candidates out to split the anti-alcohol vote -- which was down to 208 in the 2000 presidential election.
LAKEWOOD, Colo. Earl Dodge is a 71-year-old teetotaler with a Carry Nation coffee mug and a passion for the days when beer was illegal, gin was brewed in bathtubs and alcoholism was a moral failing, not a disease.
Now for the sixth time, the antibooze activist from suburban Denver is running for president as head of the Prohibition Party. So far, he's on the ballot only in Colorado, a state brimming with microbreweries, where the mayor of Denver runs seven bars and the Republican candidate for Senate is Pete Coors, owner of one of the world's biggest beer makers.
"What better place to be?" asked Dodge, sitting in a cluttered office festooned with unsmiling portraits of past Prohibitionists. "I don't want to puff myself up, but I think this is a calling. God wants me to do this."
But some of his former colleagues don't.
The Prohibition Party has been on the skids for nearly a century. Efforts to drum up excitement for a postmodern temperance movement have fizzled. And the dismal 2000 election result, when Dodge netted 208 votes, was the worst showing in party history. Disaffected Prohibitionists grumbled that their leader was dragging them down, paying more attention to his mail order campaign button business than the future of the party.
"Selling buttons is my livelihood," Dodge retorted. "And it's a fascinating hobby. I've learned so much about history."
Late last year, a group of dissidents got together at a rural Tennessee condo and voted Dodge out as national chairman. They formed the Concerns of People (Prohibition) Party and nominated their own presidential candidate.
"Earl was promoted to chairman emeritus which is a nice way of saying you're fired," said James Hedges, one of the dissident leaders.
The 66-year-old tax assessor in rural Thompson Township, Penn., is the only Prohibitionist in office today. He's a retired tuba player for the U.S. Marine Band, and his political biography notes he was twice named Outstanding Individual Recycler by the Pennsylvania Resources Council.
"Our party has been tapering off for about 100 years, and Earl wasn't doing anything to keep it going," Hedges said. "He still can't get used to the idea that he's been replaced."
Dodge ignored the coup, held a party convention at a Baptist church and was again nominated for president. Hedges said the convention was simply a gathering of seven or eight family members and friends. Dodge insists there were as many as 25.
"These other people they all want to be big chiefs in a little pond," he said.
Thanks to the schism, Colorado voters will have two temperance parties to choose from in November. Unlike other states, Colorado doesn't require a petition to get on the presidential ballot.
No one actually knows how many members either party has. Hedges figures his group has two dozen or so and Dodge has fewer than 200.
The Rev. Gene Amondson is the candidate for the breakaway party. He's an artist from Vashon Island, Wash., who travels the country reenacting the fiery antidrinking sermons of the late evangelist Billy Sunday.
Amondson, 60, describes himself as a "redneck, Bible-thumping preacher," with a simple message: Drinking alcohol is stupid.
"Alcohol has no taste at all; it's just a burning sensation," he said. "You don't drink to have a good time; you drink to forget a bad time."
And he dismisses the story of Jesus turning water into wine.
"If Jesus turned water into alcohol he wasn't very bright about alcohol was he?" he said. "I think it was grape juice."
Dodge takes a more measured tone.
He sees himself as standard bearer of a once great party that was among the first to fight for child labor laws, women's suffrage and the right of workers to unionize.
The Prohibition Party began in 1869 and was one of the first "third parties" in American history. Its symbol was the camel, a creature that drank little and then only water. Carry Nation, the hatchet-wielding zealot who chopped up saloons in the late 1800s, was probably the best-known antiliquor crusader.
rest at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-prohibit19sep19,1,869567.story
Hmmm... the Prohibition Party seems to be having some troubles. I wonder if they can be a powerful as they once were in the early 1900's.
LAKEWOOD, Colo. Earl Dodge is a 71-year-old teetotaler with a Carry Nation coffee mug and a passion for the days when beer was illegal, gin was brewed in bathtubs and alcoholism was a moral failing, not a disease.
Now for the sixth time, the antibooze activist from suburban Denver is running for president as head of the Prohibition Party. So far, he's on the ballot only in Colorado, a state brimming with microbreweries, where the mayor of Denver runs seven bars and the Republican candidate for Senate is Pete Coors, owner of one of the world's biggest beer makers.
"What better place to be?" asked Dodge, sitting in a cluttered office festooned with unsmiling portraits of past Prohibitionists. "I don't want to puff myself up, but I think this is a calling. God wants me to do this."
But some of his former colleagues don't.
The Prohibition Party has been on the skids for nearly a century. Efforts to drum up excitement for a postmodern temperance movement have fizzled. And the dismal 2000 election result, when Dodge netted 208 votes, was the worst showing in party history. Disaffected Prohibitionists grumbled that their leader was dragging them down, paying more attention to his mail order campaign button business than the future of the party.
"Selling buttons is my livelihood," Dodge retorted. "And it's a fascinating hobby. I've learned so much about history."
Late last year, a group of dissidents got together at a rural Tennessee condo and voted Dodge out as national chairman. They formed the Concerns of People (Prohibition) Party and nominated their own presidential candidate.
"Earl was promoted to chairman emeritus which is a nice way of saying you're fired," said James Hedges, one of the dissident leaders.
The 66-year-old tax assessor in rural Thompson Township, Penn., is the only Prohibitionist in office today. He's a retired tuba player for the U.S. Marine Band, and his political biography notes he was twice named Outstanding Individual Recycler by the Pennsylvania Resources Council.
"Our party has been tapering off for about 100 years, and Earl wasn't doing anything to keep it going," Hedges said. "He still can't get used to the idea that he's been replaced."
Dodge ignored the coup, held a party convention at a Baptist church and was again nominated for president. Hedges said the convention was simply a gathering of seven or eight family members and friends. Dodge insists there were as many as 25.
"These other people they all want to be big chiefs in a little pond," he said.
Thanks to the schism, Colorado voters will have two temperance parties to choose from in November. Unlike other states, Colorado doesn't require a petition to get on the presidential ballot.
No one actually knows how many members either party has. Hedges figures his group has two dozen or so and Dodge has fewer than 200.
The Rev. Gene Amondson is the candidate for the breakaway party. He's an artist from Vashon Island, Wash., who travels the country reenacting the fiery antidrinking sermons of the late evangelist Billy Sunday.
Amondson, 60, describes himself as a "redneck, Bible-thumping preacher," with a simple message: Drinking alcohol is stupid.
"Alcohol has no taste at all; it's just a burning sensation," he said. "You don't drink to have a good time; you drink to forget a bad time."
And he dismisses the story of Jesus turning water into wine.
"If Jesus turned water into alcohol he wasn't very bright about alcohol was he?" he said. "I think it was grape juice."
Dodge takes a more measured tone.
He sees himself as standard bearer of a once great party that was among the first to fight for child labor laws, women's suffrage and the right of workers to unionize.
The Prohibition Party began in 1869 and was one of the first "third parties" in American history. Its symbol was the camel, a creature that drank little and then only water. Carry Nation, the hatchet-wielding zealot who chopped up saloons in the late 1800s, was probably the best-known antiliquor crusader.
rest at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-prohibit19sep19,1,869567.story
Hmmm... the Prohibition Party seems to be having some troubles. I wonder if they can be a powerful as they once were in the early 1900's.