The City of Des Moines will soon be the eye of an electoral storm as a stampede of presidential candidates converges to enlighten voters about ideal public policies these voters can cash in on next Spring.
In the midst of the debates by politicians from both sides of the aisle, you will not likely find any candidate who will support the right of citizens in America to smoke, unimpeded and without fines and/or persecution. Not one candidate is capable of withstanding the loss of support from the politically correct electorate sedated by the junk science and health scare tactics so prevalent in contemporary America.
The tobacco nannies are limiting your rights in public parks, apartments and condos, on the premises and parking lots of employers, stadiums, cars, street corners or train platforms: Smokers beware! You will be hunted, and fined with impunity, whether you are wearing nicotine patches and attending “smokers anonymous” sessions or not.
If you smoke you are now the new N-word, just in time to replace the one buried in Detroit earlier this month. But today, there is no Martin Luther King Jr. to plead your case for equal protection, non-discrimination, and individual freedom from oppression by the State.
The civil rights protectors in the twenty-first century have all but abandoned everyday citizens who enjoy or are addicted to nicotine. Regardless of the candidate for whom you vote, if you smoke you will always be a second-class citizen in America.
No smiling Democrat, no shuffling Republican can stuff this genie back into the Iowa bottle. They can treat you that way so long as they do not use that word.
Ralph W. Conner ([email protected]) is local legislation manager for The Heartland Institute.
