Ryan Shafik |
As I See It:
Butt Out
by Ryan Shafik, Communications Director
Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research
For proof that the train of government paternalism is still running full steam ahead, one needn't look any further than the recent action of the Pennsylvania State Legislature.
Relegated to impotence and obscurity, "Harrisburg's finest" decided to finally get to work and tackle some legislation after barely working for the first six months of the year. Did they take up important issues such as taxes, right-to-work legislation, ending rampant lawsuit abuse, or others of great need?
Nope.
Avoiding vital issues jeopardizing the Commonwealth's future is what the Pennsylvania legislature does best.
Instead, in an act of the highest political grandstanding, our legislators passed different versions of a "smoking ban" in workplaces and private establishments.
The smoking ban solidifies the perception that Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania are virtually indistinguishable. In the House, more Republicans than Democrats voted in favor of curtailing owners' property rights. Unfortunately, the Republicans in the Senate, with a few exceptions, weren't the defenders of liberty either. It boggles the mind that neither major political party can be relied upon to consistently produce a bloc of votes in defense of personal freedom and property rights.
Liberal careerist Republican Senators such as Jake Corman and Jane Orie were the ones pushing the hardest for this legislation. When I confronted Senator Corman about this horrible bill, he claimed that secondhand smoke is a health risk to non-smokers in the same way drunk drivers are a health risk to sober drivers.
Sorry Senator, but even high school civics students understand that driving is a privilege that occurs on publicly owned property (roads), while private property ownership is a right. A property owner's right to allow patrons to enter, and to partake of, a legal activity - smoking - far outweighs the inclination of any particular patron to dictate the terms of allowable activity upon the property owner and other patrons.
Senator Corman's profound misunderstanding and under-appreciation of our Constitution and of civil liberties is what is driving nanny state policies such as a smoking ban.
As for the health risk to non-smokers, a cloud of smoke ensconces the claims of the likes of Corman and Orie. The Commonwealth Foundation recently reported there are serious doubts about the true health risks of second hand smoke. Nearly 80 percent of indoor employees work in a smoke-free environment designated by the choice of the employer, not by coercion from the government. Therefore, there is an abundance of employers to choose from if one desires a non-smoking environment.
Despite the lack of irrefutable evidence that secondhand smoke is a serious health risk, not to mention that smoking bans have proven to be financially crippling to certain businesses that are forced to implement them, there is a more disturbing issue at the heart of it all.
As previously alluded to, politicians, especially Pennsylvanians, love to avoid all meaningful issues and problems that confront the state. This "health issue" is one that is completely contrived by a cabal of anti-smoking zealots aided by a group of gutless politicians who latched onto it for the sole purpose of returning to their constituents to say, "This is how I have been protecting you in Harrisburg."
This issue is not one of great saliency in the minds of the public. Sure, many people might not like smoke or prefer to be in a non-smoking environment, myself being one of them. But that is why 80 percent of places of business are non smoking. People who don't want to deal with smoke can easily find smoke free establishments. They are all over the place. In fact, you are hard pressed to find any establishment that has a smoking section at all.
Since there are so few places left to smoke out there, why the need to ban the scant amount of places that still allow smoking? Plus, if one doesn't want to be exposed to smoke, don't enter or work at the remaining few places that allow smoking. I'm sure one can find comfort in the remaining 80 percent of non-smoking venues.
So, when I see politicians eager to scapegoat a tiny law-abiding minority for the purpose of scoring cheap political points, I become cynical. Especially when the Legislature refuses to take up real issues that are killing taxpayers such as their outrageous 51 percent pension increase they gave themselves in 2001, among others.
Pennsylvania has enough problems to deal with. We don't need politicians inventing ones when they refuse to confront the real ones.
Permission to reprint with attribution is hereby granted.
Ryan Shafik is the Communications Director of the
Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc., a Harrisburg-based non-profit, educational foundation, and host of the Lincoln Radio Journal.
