The Tobacco Road to Freedom
By Chuck Muth (10/22/07)
We all know and expect liberals to promote an energetic government sticking its nose into every facet of American life. But liberals alone can't bring down this republic. The true danger to this greatest experiment of individual liberty in human history comes from the Right. And the entire risk comes down to one central question: What is the proper role of government?
For the Left, that's easy: Everything.
For the Right, things are much more complicated, as evidence by a conversation I had with a conservative friend this past week with regard to government-imposed bans on smoking in privately-owned taverns. According to my friend this is a perfectly appropriate use of the power of government because people who smoke are driving his health insurance rates up. But there are at least two glaring flaws in this argument:
(a) Banning people from smoking in taverns doesn’t stop them from smoking. They just step outside and light up. So they’re still smoking and they’re still, if you accept the premise, driving up the cost of health insurance. If you’re going to use government to ban smoking for health insurance reasons, then you need to ban it completely, not just in bars.
(b) There is no constitutional right to patronize another person’s private business. Smoking bans are, or should be, a property rights issue, not a health care issue. If the government wishes to ban smoking in government buildings, fine. But the government shouldn’t be setting the smoking policy for privately owned establishments. People who don’t like being in barrooms full of smoke can avoid them simply by avoiding them. This isn’t exactly rocket science.
That many of you who consider yourselves conservative are reading this and disagreeing with me makes my point. It’s conservatives, not liberals, who will eventually undermine the USA as we know it.
Government-enforced smoking bans – as well as new FDA government regulation of tobacco - are easy to support because smoking, to the majority of the population, is such an unpopular and distasteful habit. And in a democracy the majority can vote to do anything. Which is why our Founders didn’t establish a democracy, but rather a constitutional republic. For if the majority has the power to ban smoking under the argument that it’s a risky behavior which costs society money via higher insurance rates, then we’re just a slippery slope away from banning sky-diving, skiing, mountain-climbing or even taking a hike through the woods to Grandma’s house lest a big, bad wolf attack you and the rest of us have to pay your hospital bill.
In a speech at the recent 2007 Conservative Leadership Conference, Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes made a similar argument in discussing health insurance costs. As Dr. Keyes so rightly pointed out, if the objective is to bring health care costs down the best way to achieve that goal isn’t to nationalize the health care industry or even move >from an employer-based insurance system to an individual-based system. No, the best way to keep health care costs down – and here’s a REAL inconvenient truth – is for Americans to start living healthier lives.
That means getting up off your lard-butt and exercising vigorously every day. That means putting down the potato chips and picking up the celery sticks. That means peas, not pizza. Broccoli, not brownies. That means three balanced healthy, nutritious meals a day and no more Big Macs. If everybody did that, there’s no question whatsoever that Americans’ health would improve dramatically and health care costs would drop precipitously.
But is it the proper role of government to MANDATE that each and every one of us live a healthier life? Is it appropriate for the government to REQUIRE that you to do 15 minutes of calisthenics every morning? If you answer “yes,” you’re part of the problem and are helping sow the seeds of our national demise. If you answer “no,” you’re part of a dwindling minority of Americans who are still worthy heirs to likes of Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and Adams.
Taking a principled stand in defense of private business owners setting their own smoking policy in the face of such widespread public opposition to smoking itself is what separates the men from the boys and true conservatives from the fair-weathered kind. Choose wisely, folks. The fate of a nation could depend on your decision.
Now about those mandatory seatbelt laws…
Copyright 2007 Chuck Muth. All rights reserved.
Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citizen Outreach.
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