Science & Tech Quote by Byron Dorgan

Dorgan is doing something politicians rarely do well: making a policy argument sound like common sense without sounding bloodless. “Nowhere in this country” sets a maximalist frame on purpose. He’s not debating a fine point of transportation law; he’s invoking a national moral baseline. If you allow drinking in a moving vehicle, you’re not merely permissive, you’re negligent.

“This is not rocket science” is the rhetorical cudgel. It preemptively shames would-be skeptics by casting disagreement as either bad faith or stupidity. The line also taps a very American impatience with “overcomplication,” a populist move that says: experts aren’t required here, just backbone. That’s the subtext: the barrier isn’t knowledge, it’s politics.

Then comes the clincher: “We know how to prevent this, and 36 states do.” This is legislative peer pressure dressed as evidence. He’s presenting a ready-made roadmap and implying the remaining states are outliers choosing danger. It’s also a soft federalism argument: if a majority of states have already acted, the policy has been tested in the real world, which blunts claims about unintended consequences or cultural mismatch.

Context matters. Dorgan, a longtime senator, often positioned himself as a plainspoken advocate of pragmatic regulation. This quote fits an era when drunk driving shifted from unfortunate accident to preventable public health crisis, with advocacy groups and state-by-state reforms pushing norms. The intent isn’t just passing a law; it’s recoding the issue as settled, overdue, and frankly embarrassing to resist.