Much has been said about Wal-Mart’s effects on local business. Here’s another effect of Wal-Mart’s tremendous influence on local governments which we might not have expected. It is also another example of how the interests of Main Street Republicans conflict with those of the religious right:
While much of America put Prohibition to rest 73 years ago, large parts of the South have remained strictly off-limits to alcohol sales.
But local and national business interests that stand to profit from the sale of alcohol, including real estate developers, grocery chains, restaurant groups and Wal-Mart, are combining their political and financial muscle to try to persuade hundreds of dry towns and counties to go wet. In the process, they are changing the face of the once staunchly prohibitionist Bible Belt.
Since 2002, business groups have spent upwards of $15 million on campaigns, including professional lobbyists, to persuade voters in some 200 dry towns and 25 dry counties in six Southern states to legalize alcohol sales in stores and restaurants.
Wal-Mart has financed dozens of local elections, contributing from $5,000 to $20,000 a campaign, said Tim Reeves of Beverage Election Specialists, which supports local alcohol referendums.
All I can say about this is, how abut an Appletini? It seems as good a time as any to look back at the old Appletini Blogging from The Democratic Daily, under the fold.
