Appealing to Young Voters

Pete Coors, former CEO of Coors Brewing Co. and now running in the Colorado Republican Senate primary, wants to bring back the draft - beer, that is, not military.

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. ? Colorado Republican Senate hopeful Pete Coors yesterday criticized the legal drinking age, chiding the federal government for coercing states into raising the age limit from 18 to 21.
"We got along fine for years with the 18-year-old drinking age," the former CEO of the Coors Brewing Co. told an audience of about 200 people at a candidates' debate here. "We're criminalizing our young people."

Sounds good to me!

Comments

[c]

I absolutely agree with the goal, but from a guy whose name is synonymous with cheap, wattery beer, doesn't this come off a little self-serving?

[Burl Ives]

I have to agree, if you can vote and join the military you might as well be able to kick a few back. Now that I am of legal age, however, my main goal is getting higher point beer after 9 p.m. in Oklahoma.

[dhex]

higher point beer?

[David Moynihan]

Ladies and gentlemen, members of the press, my fellow Americans.

I do hereby nominate Pete Coors for President of Beers.

Do I hear anyone to second the nomination?

(OK, actually, nothing but Newcastle Brown, or Sam Smith's Pale if possible... but, you're playing pool or something and all they have is domestic.)

[R C Dean]

a little self-serving

Two responses:

So?

and

Unlike all the other pols, eh?

[TRUTH about capitalism]

It's no accident that Coors is the right beer in America
by Mike Ewall

Coors beer is owned by the Coors family; a powerful, wealthy family that funnels the money it gets into hundreds of ultraright wing movements from neo-Nazi groups to anti-environmental think tanks. Founded by Adolph Coors, the Coors empire is a very influential force in the U.S. government. All of the information here has been well documented by civil rights and environmental groups and also in a heavily footnoted book, The Coors Connection.

The Coors family has always had strong ties to neo-Nazis. Adolph Coors allowed KKK meetings and cross-burnings on brewery property in Colorado. In 1984, Bill Coors fought against passage of the Civil Rights Act, telling an audience of black businessmen that blacks don't succeed because they "lack intellectual capacity." After encouraging them to go back to Africa, he said that one of the best things slave-drivers did to American blacks "was to drag your ancestors over here in chains" because blacks in America have greater opportunity than those in Africa. Joe Coors is a major contributor to the Moral Majority, which has called for the imprisonment of gay persons with AIDS. The Coors family funds a right-wing sector of Christian fundamentalism, which seeks to replace democratic pluralism with so-called "traditional family values" that is, an authoritarian, gender-based social order. They support groups that say homosexuals are an abomination and AIDS is God's judgment on sinners. They have supported Reverend Sun Myung Moon and Christian Reconstructionists, both of whom have called for the abolition of U.S. democracy and the establishment of a theocratic state ( . . . one nation under God, or else).

[Warren]

I'd be in favor of raising the drinking/voting/inheritance etc. age to 30. No one under thirty should be allowed to run for office, drive a car, or take out a mortgage, without adult supervision. The only fly in the ointment in my 'adulthood begins at thirty' policy is the military. There's just no substitute for the combination of testosterone and malleability that makes young men the best raw material of killers and bullet stoppers.

Very well then, old enough to kill old enough to drink, and all the rest of it too I guess. Except for sex. It should be a crime to have sex with any one under thirty, or any two under fifteen.

[TRUTH about capitalism]

Coors family members have sat on boards of groups with people like a former Indiana KKK leader, apartheid supporters and ultraright Christian Reconstructionists calling for the execution of homosexuals, adulterers and blasphemers.

Coors is fiercely anti-labor, having broken 19 unions in 20 years and having blocked OSHA inspectors from investigating workplace hazards which led to the death of Coors employees. Coors supported the National Right to Work Committee, an anti-worker group out to destroy unions.

Coors has supported terrorist activity in many foreign countries, including the Contras in Nicaragua, who have ambushed and killed civilians, murdered teachers and medical workers and destroyed rural schools and medical centers in order to help the CIA take over their government.

Coors is one of the largest dumpers of hazardous waste in Colorado. They've been cited many times for water pollution and have been caught covering up known pollution including contamination of multiple underground springs where toxic chemical solvents contributed to irregular heartbeat, unconsciousness, pulmonary edema and death.

Joe Coors was one of a small group of people with ready access to Presidents Reagan and Bush. Joe and his brother Bill both belonged to a since-exposed secret all-male club called Bohemian Grove that Reagan, Bush and other ruling class figures such as the Secretary of Defense and mass media executives (but no reporters) would attend. Coors also funded the Parental Music Resource Center, a pro-censorship group with strong ties to the religious right. The PMRC was led by Al Gore's wife.

[TRUTH about capitalism]

Joe Coors started the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank seeking to abolish civil rights laws, minimum wage laws, environmental laws, affirmative action, rights for the handicapped and arms control. He chose a neo-Nazi author of an Aryan supremacy book as co-editor of their publication, "Policy Review." They have sponsored forums for pro-Nazi groups and have funded the work of a convicted Nazi collaborator.

In the summer of 1996, the Heritage Foundation did a huge mailing to voters telling them to support Republican Senator Bob Dole for President. In the letter, Dole promised to abolish the federal departments of education, housing, transportation and energy. Right in line with libertarian rhetoric, they would have government off of corporate America's back and no social safety net for the people.

When Coors commercials used to brag that they are the "right beer now," they weren't kidding. Coors also owns Zima, Killian's Irish Red and Masters Beer.

[c]

I guess I'd rather him advocate it than not, I'm just questioning how wise this position is, politically. Is this his first campaign?

[Fred Gillette]

Warren, Now that's a post. Same to you Mr. Truth.

[TRUTH about capitalism]

And chemtrails. Did I mention the chemtrails? Swarms of Coors aircraft circle the country, spreading chemtrails. Even as we speak.

[c]

chemtrails? now you're just fooling with us.

[TRUTH about capitalism]

And another thing, what's this about Japanese schoolgirls and their underpants?

[brooklyn dave]

Well, first of all "truth about capitalism" certainly has a beef against Mr. Coors. Sounds like left-wing gobbledy-gook to me. I am old enough to remeber the 18 year old drinking age in New York and things aren't any more safer or sedate now that the drinking age is 21. It is primarily groups like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers), the Health Nazis, and Evangelicals who would want the drinking age to be 121 that basically got states that had an 18 drinking age to raise it. I pretty much follow the thought if you can vote and die for your country you can swig a few pints. I drink that other swill called Budweiser

[matt]

Perhaps a better title for Truth's posts would be "truth about corporatism" or "truth about state capitalism"

[iconoclast]

TRUTH-
Outside of the neo-nazi rubbish, coors sounds like a great guy. I'd buy him a beer for smashing 19 unions and blocking the gmen from inspections.

Ps-
His daughters went to Hillsdale College. The great bastion of conservative / libertarian education in America. I'm sure you can find some dirt on Hillsdale with supporters like Dow and Coors. Anyway, rumor has it that the coors girls never drank...... must be something to that.
Cheers!

[Dot]

TRUTH's post struck me as urban legendy, so i went looking:
According to Snopes, etc, the Nazi/KKK stuff is false:
http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/coors.asp
http://www.beveragebusiness.com/art98/bryson0603.html

In any case, lowering the drinking age seems logical. It's not like people between 18-20 DONT drink anyway, and if you're considered an adult in other ways, why not this way too?

[Mo]

iconoclast:
Are the Coors girls twins? 🙂

[Richard]

Truth,

Any relation to Michael Moore?

[Tim Stich]

It would be a good idea to let kids drink at 16 and postpone driver's licenses until 18. That way teens could work through the binge drinking and other BS that comes with learning how to drink.

[zorel]

an instance of a good message getting 'diluted' due to the messenger 🙁

if someone were to support legalized drug use, would most of uslike it, or would we worry about their motives?

Coors for President (and TRUTH for Sec of Commerce 🙂

[iconoclast]

mo-
TWINS! Hilarious.

Honestly, they were there a few years before me so I wouldn't know. I only ever heard the rumors that they didn't drink and they were "nice" girls.

Jeff coors is on the board of trustee and I can't find a picture of them.

[Christina]

Though I agree that 18 should be the legal drinking age I think the biggest barrier to it is the idea that high school seniors would then be able to supply booze to underclassmen. As a middle ground I propose we follow the lead of our neighbor to the North and lower the drinking age to 19. That way you're in college (or at least out of high school) and legally able to party the way you would anyway.

[Garfield]

"Joe Coors started the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank seeking to abolish civil rights laws, minimum wage laws, environmental laws, affirmative action, rights for the handicapped and arms control..."

And what exactly is wrong with these positions?

[Steve]

I recently finished reading a biography of the Coors family called "Citizen Coors." As far as I know, there is and never has been any Klan connection or Nazi sympathizing on the part of the Coors family. However, I did read that they are fiercely anti-labor and opposed the Civil Rights Act. Although, I doubt this was the intention of the author, it actually made me admire them even more. I am now doing my own part to counteract the boycott that a variety of leftists have been exercising against Coors for years. Whenever I entertain at my place or go to bars, I only buy Coors products (Coors Original, Coors Light, Killians, and Keystone). Cheers to the Coors family.

[Mo]

Truth:
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but you do knopw you're at a primarily libertarian website and you're not likely to demonize Coors by saying that he wants to abolish civil rights laws, minimum wage laws, environmental laws, affirmative action, rights for the handicapped and gun control. Do you go to Dem sites and try to demonize pro-choice candidates in your spare time?

I'm just glad Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf found something to do with his spare time now that Saddam's behind bars.

[Rick Barton]

"The Coors family has always had strong ties to neo-Nazis."

A big lie.

[Rick Barton]

Pete Coors might well be too honest to be a successful politician.

[Rick Barton]

After reading "Truth"'s posts, all of us who love capitalism should be gratified that he/she is on the other side.

[TRUTH about Satanism]

Pete Coors worships Satan!

In fact, Pete Coors IS Satan!!

Say, that would also make him a narcissist, wouldn't it?

[Mark S.]

Christina: The trouble with that is, not everyone who goes to college starts at age 19.
Many of my classmates graduated at age 17 and wouldn't become 18 until they were at least a semster into college.

Personally, I would say we take a cue from our friends in Europe who largely don't have minimum age laws for the purchase of alcohol. Perhaps we should start teaching our children how to drink responsibily for a change, rather than making it a forbidden fruit to binge upon before the cops come to bust up the kegger.

[drf]

"Hillsdale College. The great bastion of conservative / libertarian education in America"

libertarian? from a school that censors its school paper? from a school that can search the students? from a school that has dorm visiting hours? you've got to be kidding.....

(top of fifth, nothin-nothin. pryor is lookin good)

drf

[TRUTH about communism]

[figures from here.]

Deaths in China, Mao Zedong's regime (1949-1975):
Rural purges, 1946-49: 2-5M deaths
Urban purges, 1950-57: 1M
Great Leap Forward: 20-43M
Cultural Revolution: 2-7M
Labor Camps: 20M
Tibet: 0.6-1.2M
TOTAL: 44.5 to 72M

Deaths in Leningrad, USSR (urban siege: 8 Sept. 1941-27 Jan. 1944):
"641 000 died in siege; one million dead in siege and evacuation."

Deaths in Kolyma, USSR (Soviet GULAG: 1930-mid 1950s):
"One estimated [the death toll] at 250,000, one at 300,000, one at 800,000, one at more than 1,000,000."

Deaths in Vorkuta, USSR (Soviet GULAG: 1932-62):
"3/1/04 Telegraph estimates at >100,000"

[thoreau]

People, don't feed the trolls!

Like Weird Al said in "All About the Pentiums": "I don't feed trolls and I never read spam!"

[Andrew Lynch]

Whenever I entertain at my place or go to bars, I only buy Coors products (Coors Original, Coors Light, Killians, and Keystone).

Well, there's no accounting for taste.

[Czar]

I'm all for having no minimum age for drinking and just letting natural selection take place.

[joe]

Truth, don't bother, bro. Telling libertarians to oppose a politician because he's tough on unions is like telling Hamas to stop their attacks because some of their victims are Jewish.

We're talking about people who think the correct punishment for an executive who grabs at his visibly frightened secretary's tits every morning and laughs about it is...to have to hire another secretary when she works up the courage to quit.

We're talking about people who consider workplace injuries and grinding poverty to be useful motivators for the lazy working class to get off their ass and work harder.

[TWC]

Yeah, Joe's right. We like to watch people starve in the street as well. Makes the morning jog less boring. At least until the bodies get ripe.

[twc]

Can't buy a pistol or a beer at 18 but you can cut Iraqis in half with an M-60 or fly home in a wooden box with a flag on top.

Makes sense to me, guys, where's the bitch?

[twc]

The drinking age was never 18 in Californicate. It was, however, 19 in Arizona (but you couldn't get beer at the river before noon on Sunday).

There also was a time in the bad old days when you weren't legal until you were 21. In some states that only applied to men because women were deemed to have matured faster and therefore had some rights at 18 (Example: My mom could legally marry my dad on her say-so but my dad had to have his parents permission).

[twc]

Hey, I ain't done yet.

Back in the dark ages before diet beer had been invented and when old guys hoisted stuff with odd names like Schlitz, Pabst, and Hamms, Coors was known as Americas Fine Light Beer. We called it Rocky Mountain Piss Water but it was better than that ghastly Coors Lite marketed today.

On that same note, regular Coors is decent enough and drinkable on a hot summer afternoon of Honey Dew projects but it hardly qualifies as a good or even mediocre beer.

All natural though.

[Jimmy Antley]

We're talking about people who believe you can just say whatever you want, even when it deeply hurts peoples feeling, so long as it doesn't violate their precious "right to life and property"

We're talking about mofo's who think that the government should not even be allowed to spend their money on nice art made out of pea and dog dukey. They say that it is coercion when they are forced to pay the government money to give out to other people to buy cheese doodles, twinkies, and Coors Light (TASTES GREAT!, NO! LESS FILLING!) all because they are too lazy to work, like me.

We're talking about people with the pure impudence to think they want to defend themselves against criminals. They have phones even and know they can call 911 and get a government agent to their house in 45 minutes.

Telling Libertarians to stop reading Ann Rand (who's writing really does suck, by the way) and listening to Rush (the band) is like telling Michael Moore to get a clue, lose some weight and leave the seat-belt extender at home.

[crimethink]

joe,

Come on, you know you love us! If you didn't, you would have left long ago. 🙂

[Lisa Simpson]

Antley, learn to spell. For one, it's AYN Rand. How could you not notice her name on the covers of her books that you claim to be familiar with? And no, it's not pronounced Ann, either. ("Ann Rand" sounds flat and nasal. Not a good pen name.)

[Rick Barton]

joe,

You know we libertarians don't condone the initiation of force, including physical sexual harassment.

Also, when reforms in the libertarian direction are enacted, living standards go. And no libertarian would ever think that workplace injuries "are useful motivators for the lazy working class to get off their ass and work harder." Of course, workplace injuries are a disincentive to work.

[Stanley Tucheese]

Antley, learn to spell. For one, it's AYN Rand. How could you not notice her name on the covers of her books that you claim to be familiar with? And no, it's not pronounced Ann, either. ("Ann Rand" sounds flat and nasal. Not a good pen name.)

Lisa Simpson, I figured his misspelling was a joke, as that whole post seemed to be a joke...unless of course you were also joking, pretending to be an objectivist who couldn't stand to see Ayn's name spelled wrong...unless of course you and Jimmy Antley are the same person and both posts were one big joke...good grief!

[kevrob]

I prefer to have neither a King nor a President of Beer. Let a thousand micros be brewed!

Refusing to let 18-20 year-old citizens drink legally is a violation of the equal protection of the laws, and is especially cruel during an election year. No one can reasonably expect us to choose among the several candidates while sober!

Kevin
(In Brewtown)

[kevrob]

I prefer to have neither a King nor a President of Beer. Let a thousand micros be brewed!

Refusing to let 18-20 year-old citizens drink legally is a violation of the equal protection of the laws, and is especially cruel during an election year. No one can reasonably expect us to choose among the several candidates while sober!

Kevin
(In Brewtown)

[kevrob]

I prefer to have neither a King nor a President of Beer. Let a thousand micros be brewed!

Refusing to let 18-20 year-old citizens drink legally is a violation of the equal protection of the laws, and is especially cruel during an election year. No one can reasonably expect us to choose among the several candidates while sober!

Kevin
(In Brewtown)

[kevrob]

I didn't mean to triple-post. Maybe I should run out and get some triple-bock.

Kevin
(Drinking and posting don't mix, kids!)

[Jimmy Antley]

"Coors family members have sat on boards of groups with people like a former Indiana KKK leader, apartheid supporters and ultraright Christian Reconstructionists calling for the execution of homosexuals, adulterers and blasphemers.

Coors is fiercely anti-labor, having broken 19 unions in 20 years and having blocked OSHA inspectors from investigating workplace hazards which led to the death of Coors employees. Coors supported the National Right to Work Committee, an anti-worker group out to destroy unions.

Coors has supported terrorist activity in many foreign countries, including the Contras in Nicaragua, who have ambushed and killed civilians, murdered teachers and medical workers and destroyed rural schools and medical centers in order to help the CIA take over their government.

Coors is one of the largest dumpers of hazardous waste in Colorado. They?ve been cited many times for water pollution and have been caught covering up known pollution including contamination of multiple underground springs where toxic chemical solvents contributed to irregular heartbeat, unconsciousness, pulmonary edema and death.

Joe Coors was one of a small group of people with ready access to Presidents Reagan and Bush. Joe and his brother Bill both belonged to a since-exposed secret all-male club called Bohemian Grove that Reagan, Bush and other ruling class figures such as the Secretary of Defense and mass media executives (but no reporters) would attend. Coors also funded the Parental Music Resource Center, a pro-censorship group with strong ties to the religious right. The PMRC was led by Al Gore?s wife."

Sure, Truth, but still it TASTES GREAT! and is LESS FILLING!

[Jimmy Antley]

"Coors family members have sat on boards of groups with people like a former Indiana KKK leader, apartheid supporters and ultraright Christian Reconstructionists calling for the execution of homosexuals, adulterers and blasphemers.

Coors is fiercely anti-labor, having broken 19 unions in 20 years and having blocked OSHA inspectors from investigating workplace hazards which led to the death of Coors employees. Coors supported the National Right to Work Committee, an anti-worker group out to destroy unions.

Coors has supported terrorist activity in many foreign countries, including the Contras in Nicaragua, who have ambushed and killed civilians, murdered teachers and medical workers and destroyed rural schools and medical centers in order to help the CIA take over their government.

Coors is one of the largest dumpers of hazardous waste in Colorado. They?ve been cited many times for water pollution and have been caught covering up known pollution including contamination of multiple underground springs where toxic chemical solvents contributed to irregular heartbeat, unconsciousness, pulmonary edema and death.

Joe Coors was one of a small group of people with ready access to Presidents Reagan and Bush. Joe and his brother Bill both belonged to a since-exposed secret all-male club called Bohemian Grove that Reagan, Bush and other ruling class figures such as the Secretary of Defense and mass media executives (but no reporters) would attend. Coors also funded the Parental Music Resource Center, a pro-censorship group with strong ties to the religious right. The PMRC was led by Al Gore?s wife."

Sure, Truth, I wouldn't put it past them, but Coors TASTES GREAT! and is LESS FILLING! So what's your damn problem?

* Another cold-hearted Libertarian bastard heard from.

[SUNY grad]

When I was in college the NY drinking age was 19. What this meant was you couldn't get a drink in off campus bars, but once you got into a college party drinking was fine.

Kept the kids out but everyone who was a student got a good enough buzz to get laid. Seemed like a good idea at the time!

[MJ]

"We're talking about people who think the correct punishment for an executive who grabs at his visibly frightened secretary's tits every morning and laughs about it is...to have to hire another secretary when she works up the courage to quit."-joe

But if the executive is a politician with a "D" after his name it's not a problem, is it?

[truth about beers]

Coors, and 99% of all other American beers, SUCK!!

[joe]

crimethink, I do love you. I just disagree with you. It's a liberal thing.

Yeah, MJ, Monica seemed terribly frightened.

Rick, so if she's afraid because she doesn't want to lose her job, rather than because she doesn't want to get a slap on the head, it's all good?

There's more than one kind of coercion, dude. You're very fortunate that you've never had to learn that on your own.