[Illbay]

In fact, "the government" is us. It is WE THE PEOPLE who have decided these things, and at the state level.

The Libertines wish to gloss over this fact, so they can keep pitching their manure about the J.B.T.s.

The drinking age will NOT be raised, no matter how they cry and whine. The drug laws won't be relaxed no matter how the scream and shout.

And why?

Because WE THE PEOPLE don't want those changes.

They will moan, b**** and continually complain, but that's all they have.

[southern rock]

Because WE THE PEOPLE don't want those changes.

In case you failed to notice, we DO NOT live in a democracy. What the majority of the people "want" is irrelevant. The majority cannot ban any one single person from peacefully minding his own buisness and excercising his rights.

[truenospinzone]

So how does this wonderful "WE THE PEOPLE" theory of yours work in cities/states that have passed by majority initiatives allowing, for example, for the use of medical marijuana, only to have the federal government initiate force against those complying with their communities' own standards? Does the majority only count when it's in your favor? Silly me, I must have missed the public vote on the Constitutionality of the WOsD and legal drinking age.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

In fact, "the government" is us. It is WE THE PEOPLE who have decided these things, and at the state level.

That isn't true---at least when it comes to state drinking ages. In the early-to-mid 1980s, the federal government declared it would stop spending federal highway money in states that refused to raise their drinking ages to 21. Sure enough, each state changed its legal drinking age to 21. I was a college freshman in one of the last states to raise its drinking age---Vermont---and I could drink legally at 18 in '86.

[headsonpikes]

"In fact, the government is us."

I have every reason to believe you; it's certainly not the REST of us!