Although neither of my parents are heavy drinkers

4 min readJan 30, 2021

President Joe Biden. Image by the White House via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Teetotaler Presidents

Drinking alcohol is often considered the norm, however abstinence is far more common than many people realize: in America, nearly half of adults haven’t had a single drink in the past month. In fact, even our new president, Joe Biden, doesn’t drink.

According to the New York Times, Biden has never had an alcoholic drink in his entire life. We’re just two decades into the 21st century, yet it’s already the third time that America has elected a president who completely abstains from alcohol.

Teetotaling presidents have become the standard. Barack Obama — who famously brewed the first White House beer — is the only exception since Bill Clinton.

George W. Bush started out his adult life as a drinker, but got sober in 1986, 15 years before becoming president. Although he doesn’t consider himself to have been an alcoholic, Bush quit drinking because of his personal negative experiences with alcohol, including a DUI.

In stark contrast, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have both abstained from alcohol for their entire lives. They didn’t choose to get sober — they just never started drinking in the first place.

Biden hasn’t spoken much about his reasons for not trying alcohol, aside from to say: “There are enough alcoholics in my family.” (Source). Biden grew up with an uncle with severe alcoholism, and his son also suffers from addiction.

Biden understands first-hand how alcoholism can ruin a life. He is presumably aware of the genetic component of addiction as well, since that seems to be what he is alluding to with his comment about alcoholics in his family.

With this knowledge, Biden wisely decided not to take any risks and to simply never start drinking in the first place. It’s much easier to avoid alcohol completely than to get addicted and then quit.

Avoiding Addiction

Reading about Biden’s decision not to drink made me think about my own family. Like Biden’s, my extended family tree is filled with addicts — mostly alcoholics and smokers.

Although neither of my parents are heavy drinkers, I knew when growing up that their own parents — my grandparents — were. I also knew about my many cousins and other relatives who had struggled with addiction. My parents even explicitly warned me that addiction ran in our family.

Despite this, I started drinking anyway. It should come as no surprise that I developed an addiction very quickly.

I struggled with alcoholism for the next ten years until finally getting sober in 2016. I had tried to cut back and quit many times before finding any success. I ended up creating a lot of unnecessary struggles for myself because of my drinking habit.

One of my cousins chose Biden’s path instead. He has abstained from alcohol his entire life, never trying even one sip of it.

When I used to drink, I thought my cousin was crazy. I couldn’t comprehend not wanting to at least try a few beers and see what all the fuss was about.

Now that I’ve struggled with addiction and gone through all of the effort of getting sober, I can see that my cousin had it right all along.

These days, we’re both in the same place — not drinking at all — but my cousin took a much easier path to get there. While I was struggling to stop drinking, his life was going smoothly and happily. He saved himself a lot of miserable years, and I suspect that Biden did too.

Nobody Needs Alcohol

I think that one of the big reasons people drink is simply a fear of missing out. It certainly was a factor for me.

I thought that I needed alcohol to make friends, to have fun, and even to help me in my legal career. I worried that if I was sober I’d miss out on chances to meet people and network.

Politics — like law — is a field packed with drinking, and many would-be politicians feel that alcohol is a necessity.

Biden (along with Trump and Bush) has proven that this is absolutely not the case. Without ever having a drink of alcohol, Biden has reached the highest political office in the country. It certainly doesn’t look like his teetotaling has caused him to miss out.

Although neither of my parents are heavy drinkers

Teetotaler Presidents

Avoiding Addiction

Nobody Needs Alcohol

Written by Sloisdf