Yeah, it's part of the culture, especially in the country, where the density is lower, drunken drivers mostly hurt themselves, and it's hard to get to & from a bar without driving. Kipling actually wrote a comic poem about drunken driving (in the days when drivers were mostly rich). It would be hard, in many places, to find a judge & jurors who hadn't driven drunk themselves.

Drinking & driving go together in a lot of young men's minds -- they are Things You Do When You Grow Up -- and so, if the young men are foolish enough (as they mostly are), drinking & driving will go together in their behavior as well. I suspect that the founders of Mothers Against Drunken Driving made a mistake in choosing that name. Deep in the brains of fools, I think, is a little phonograph that replies "Leave mothers out of this".

Here is a modest proposal that might do a little good, at least in town. In most or all states of the US, the driving age (16?) is younger than the drinking age (21). Let the state issue to young people who choose it a permit stating that the bearer is *not* licensed to drive and may therefore buy alcoholic drinks in establishments licensed for that purpose, for consumption on the premises. There would, I suppose, be few takers, but there might be some who would use the opportunity to go out drinking with their parents. At any rate, the existence of the choice would give the right message.