Driving is something people do every single day. Unfortunately, sometimes people drink too much and think they can drive and tragic, horrible accidents happen. Many people that drive drunk don't think they are drunk and don't think they are making a dangerous choice at all. They don't think they are "choosing to drive drunk" they think they are choosing to drive. That's the root of the problem. Saying they "know the consequence" of that choice is to misunderstand what alcohol does to people. They don't know the consequence, in fact, they don't think they are taking a risk. The alcohol doesn't just impair their ability to drive, it impairs their ability to make a smart choice.
Beating your wife, whether you are drunk or not, is a choice a person makes. Whether you make that choice drunk or sober, you are choosing to assault someone and you are choosing to cause harm.
These are not the same things at all.
And please, don't even being to pretend you know how drunk driving has affected my life. You don't have a damn clue what you are talking about and I would urge you *not* to go down this road.
Choosing to drink, and then drive - especially in a day and age when you can call a cab with a tap of a button on your phone - is a choice. You're just making a bad choice, but thats not excused because you were impaired. The defense of alcohol making you make bad decisions is not acceptable excuse. You are putting many more people at risk when making that decisions than you are when assaulting your significant other. They're both despicable acts, but one has potentially much more serious consequences than the other.
That you are even attempting to rationalize drinking and driving speaks volumes.