Place To Vent

[Kenyth]

DandCigars, I can't imagine how awful it must be to be in the tobacco business in today's political climate. Of course, the irony is that if everybody quit smoking today, the government would go broke tomorrow. You have my best wishes in keeping your business alive and flourishing. I know that in Minnesota, they just doubled the tax rate on cigars this past month. Cigar shop owners they profiled on the news were pretty much preparing to shut their doors as a result of the assault on them.

Crickett, I used to agree with you that the nanny state would be stopped in its tracks when it thrust its bootheel into the necks of coffee drinkers and fast-food eaters, among other groups. Recent statistical data has made me change my opinion. In just the last two years, the number of people suggesting a willingness to impose a "fat tax" on fatty foods as a way to "curb the obesity epidemic" has doubled. The nanny-staters seem to have it down to a science....invent a crisis, bombard the public with relentless horrific warnings about the dangers and costs to society that we're imposing on ourselves with our lifestyle, and then watch the sheep nod in agreement that we "have to do something." I hope you're right that there's an eventual backlash against the creeping nannyism hijacking our personal freedoms one by one, but I'm skeptical.

It never fails to amaze me how many people WANT the government to run their lives and how many people run to trade in their old bloodstained freedom card for a shiny new security one. Ignorance is the problem. Not enough education is given on how we won our liberty and why we needed to. Plenty is given on politically correct sex education, drug and alchohol abuse, smoking, sexual harassment, etc. For some reason, we are poorly educated on how to exercise our rights and responsibility as citizens. The apathy and ignorance of our general population towards our govermental doings is frankly, quite scary! If the majority of people won't run the government to their benefit, the minority agendas will.

[CoventryCat86]

The government is a function of the people who THE PEOPLE elect to pass the laws. THE PEOPLE should demand that their legislators not pass liberal legislation.

Until the liberal do-gooders are voted out of office, expect more of this crap.

[cigar no baka]

The government is a function of the people who THE PEOPLE elect to pass the laws. THE PEOPLE should demand that their legislators not pass liberal legislation.

Until the liberal do-gooders are voted out of office, expect more of this crap.

And until the "tea-leave-reading" judges are rooted out of our courts, the courts will continue to impose their liberal views on society.

[joshua]

Laws like the smoking bans which are popular these days aren't being passed by just liberals though. For example, the new york public smoking ban was introduced by republicans and governer Pataki is also republican.

[yarimurray]

It is clear by the right to life discussion in anther thread that the conservatives can intrude into our personal lives as well. Our diminishing freedom does not seem to be a liberal nor a conservative issue but rather a case of apathy and ignorance as has been mentioned ealier.

The only answer is to hold our elected officials (public servants?) acountable, be they Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative (and even independent). Those in office seem to think we are beholden to them and they have forgotten that they work for us. Unfortunately we have made it easy by failing to speak up when our rights and fredoms are eroded away little by little.

I hope that enough people wake up in time to turn the tide against the nanny state but I am unfortunately skeptical that things will change much despite government getting bigger and more influential in our lives.

Just my .02

Michael

[Amanda]

The most recent state to pass stringent smoking restrictions was the bright-red state of Georgia, signed by conservative Republican Governor Sonny Purdue after breezing on through the conservative (and I believe Republican) Georgia Legislature. Meanwhile, conservative cities like Lincoln, Nebraska; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and in the heart of tobacco country, Lexington, Kentucky, have all passed smoking bans in the last couple years. Republican Governors across the country, most recently in Minnesota, have jacked up tobacco taxes to fill budget holes.

Five years ago, the Republican Party was more likely to be on the right side of the smoking freedom issue. Those days are increasingly over, since the majority of voters in both parties have no interest in the rights and/or freedoms of smokers, and since we're not politically organized and thus wield virtually no lobbying power. The finally straw is likely to be passage of a Federal tobacco tax that could easily zip through the Republican House, the Republican Senate and the Republican President. Last year, the administration's Health and Human Services department gave the thumbs-up to a $2 per pack Federal tax on cigarettes.

Smokers are the political path of least resistance for both parties. Unless we figure out some way to organize and lobby like every other protected interest group, we'll continue to be walked all over no matter which political party is in charge.