May 8th, 2005
stupid politics
My Fair City just passed a smoking ban.
For weeks, I’ve been listening to these stupid radio commercials, running up to the election, implying that the smoking ban is a way for Big Government to control our lives and restrict our choices (particularly our choices in where to drink and hear live music).
And now that it’s passed, I’m sure we’ll hear lots of noise about Big Government and the Damn Red Staters controlling our lives and telling us what to do.
So isn’t it interesting that smoking bans originated because of concerns over public health? Which is a particularly Blue State issue?
I didn’t vote on this issue, primarily because we’re leaving and I don’t really think it’s right for me to vote for or against something that I will never have to live with. But if I were voting, I probably would have voted for it. I’ve been a waitress; good friends of mine have been bartenders. When I waited tables, I smoked. Many of my service industry friends smoke. And most of them get sick and tired of working an eight-hour shift in a smoky bar. I agree—it sucks, quite honestly.
This is the South, for goodness’ sake. If you can’t smoke in the bar (and you already can’t smoke in restaurants here, or bars that make more than 50% of their revenue from food sales), you can walk the heck outside. It’s not going to be snowing or icy. It might be raining, but hey, weather is weather.
Basically, I’m sick of these people who, in every other polictical situation, would be raving liberals, but in this case pull the libertarian card! Before you go mouthing off in the public arena, figure out what your actual political ideals are.
And if I hear ONE PERSON bitch about this ban being a Red State blight, I might have to go postal.
comments
That is super weird… I always thought it was the Blue Staters who supported bans on smoking. (e.g. California, New York) Weird.
I could care less about it one way or the other in bars… for as often as I’m in a bar. However, I really wish my (and soon to be your) fair city would ban smoking in restaurants–or at least require a physical separation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been seated in the “non-smoking” section that was adjacent to the smoking section and had a perfectly good meal ruined as a result. Oh well…
I’m with Dave - I associate smoking bans with blue states, and red staters with lots of smoking. Certainly the only places I’ve lived that have restaurant/bar smoking bans are blue states - Los Angeles, Boston, DC.
As a libertarian (not just on the smoking issue!) I think private businesses should be able to set their own policies on issues like smoking. But I must admit, I thoroughly enjoy the fact that I can go to any bar or restaurant without worrying that cigarette smoke will interfere with my pleasant experience.
I think that the success of smoking bans (in that they didn’t cause profits to drop in bars as their opponents claimed they would) should give business owners in smoking-allowed cities more confidence in a private decision to ban smoking in their own restaurants/bars. Has this been happening at all? I don’t know, because I haven’t lived in a smoking-allowed city for the past 3 years or so.
Hanah, as I understand it, bars in cities with smoking bans have not seen any significant drop in revenue that can be attributed to the bans. So they’re working.
And both of you are right—this is a Blue State issue, or at least a Blue issue. (I live in a Blue city in the middle of a Red State.) So that’s why I find it so hysterically weird and annoying that all the liberals floating around here are crying out that their personal freedoms are being curtailed. They sound like Republicans!
This city has had a ban on smoking in restaurants for years, and it hasn’t caused problems. But all the live music lovers are just certain that the ban will be the end of live music here as we know it. Bull hooey.
I live in a smoking-banned city and as far as I can tell (but I’m not too sure how it works), only certain establishments have to be non-smoking. Certain bars and bars that serve food can be smoking but they must be smoking all the time (unlike old IHOP standards - non-smoking only on weekends and holidays when the big crowds are in) and they have to post that they are a smoking establishment and that there are no non-smoking areas or something like that.