Conservative Boot Camp

Democracy is nothing more than an operating set of balances. The three branches of government were set up to be a perpetual “rock-paper-scissors” game, each having the power to stop the other. There is the constant struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces for regulation of freedom. It is that last balance that has created the most dramatic conflicts over the 230-odd years of our democracy. Today we deal with this conflict daily and one of the more interesting venues through which this conflict plays out is the topic of smoking.

Let me start out by saying that I am not a smoker. I don’t like the smell of tobacco smoke, and I don’t willingly spend time with smokers who are smoking. I smoked for a few years in my youth and then I quit. I’ve never looked back with fondness or desire about smoking. I think that smoking has devastating health and economic consequences that are deplorable. I regularly question those people that I know who smoke about why they do it and urge them to quit. But I will not ever attempt to regulate smoking out of existence.

Like smoking or not, people who smoke have the right to smoke. The current attitude of those groups and individuals who beat the drum loudly for greater government harassment of smokers are typical of the modern liberal intolerance for those who don’t agree with them. “Eliminate them!” they cry, “Pass a law, throw them in jail”, they say. “Make them pay for their crimes to humanity.” Modern liberals have a horrible track record when it comes to tolerating their opposition. Smokers have been targeted with a series of moves over the years that are aimed at making them so miserable that they’ll quit their disgusting habit. They’ve been pushed outside; they’ve been confined to smaller and smaller spaces; they’ve been targeted with discriminatory taxes several times over; in some cities, they’ve been restricted to smoking in their cars. It’s embarrassing that a supposedly free society treats 23% of it’s adults with such disdain.

Progressively demonising tobacco related behaviour will ultimately result in criminalising it, much like what has been done with marijuana over a century or so. There will come a day when using tobacco will be seen as a criminal act and there will be jail time given to those involved - the “dealers” first, then the users. It’s as inevitable as is the sun rising tomorrow. It’s the frenzied paranoia of unchecked modern liberalism that will cause it to happen.

I can only hope that I’m long dead before this happens. I don’t think I could take that level of government intrusion into our daily lives.