First, get rid of the federally mandated 21-year-old drinking age. Introduced by Republicans (it was spearheaded by Elizabeth Dole) in the 1980s, it was always a lousy idea. The result has been more, not less, alcohol abuse on campus, as student drinkers have moved from public venues, where there was supervision, to dorm rooms and frat houses, where there’s less.

And it’s fundamentally unfair. At 18, people can sign contracts, get married and sign up for student loans that will haunt them for decades. They can join the military and go off to die in foreign lands. But federal law presumes they’re too immature to have a beer.

Would the preacher from “Footloose” support repealing the federal drinking-age mandate? No. And that’s yet another reason for Republicans to do so.

Cellphones are another place where young people are oppressed by The Man. As of this year, unlocking your cellphone — putting in a new SIM card so that you can use it with the carrier of your choice — is a felony for which you can potentially get five years in prison and a half-million-dollar fine.