frank rich this morning, connecting prohibition with right-wing religious politics of the 80s/90s. it's worth pointing out that the movement for prohibition was originally a progressive idea for moral uplift, originating in the same crowd as abolitionism, the peace movement, and in particular feminism in the mid-nineteenth century. no doubt there was a coalition with what we'd think of evangelical christian groups; however, all the progressive movements also had prtotestant christianity at their roots. in other words, the political spectrum familiar to us cannot be directly applied like this.