Politics & Power Quote by Pete Coors

It is, on its face, an appealingly plainspoken line: a beer executive in a beer state saying he would make it easier to drink beer. But the craft is in the conditional. “If it went on the ballot” launders self-interest through a civics frame, shifting the idea from corporate agenda to democratic process. Coors isn’t lobbying; he’s merely participating. That rhetorical move matters because it casts deregulation as popular will, not industry pressure.

The choice of Colorado is equally strategic. This isn’t an abstract national pronouncement; it’s hometown politics, where the Coors name is both brand and legacy. By narrowing the claim to a state ballot, he signals local accountability while sidestepping the messier national argument: federal highway funding incentives, cross-border spillover, and the still-potent moral panic around teenage drinking.

The subtext is a familiar libertarian-leaning pitch dressed as pragmatism: if 18-year-olds can vote, work, enlist, and shoulder adult consequences, why keep alcohol behind a legal velvet rope? Yet coming from a businessman, the argument also carries an unspoken market logic. Lowering the drinking age doesn’t just expand “freedom”; it expands customers, brand loyalty, and lifetime consumption.

What makes the quote work is its careful calibration. It’s provocative enough to sound independent-minded, restrained enough to avoid sounding predatory. Coors positions himself as a reasonable citizen with a reasonable vote, even as the statement quietly aligns public policy with private profit.