In Defense of The Nanny State: Should the Government Always Treat Us Like Grown Ups?

Few questions loom larger on the political horizon right now than defining the proper role of government in regulating individual freedoms. As many have argued with varying degrees of sanity over the past few months, much of the current health care debate boils down to what kind of government America both needs and deserves.

Today I’m over at PoliticsDaily.com taking issue with a piece that came out over the weekend in Slate by Jacob Weisberg. Weisberg points to a dismaying trend of “nanny state”-type intrusions on individual liberties sweeping the United States, things like a series of New York City initiatives that aim to ban smoking in public places and to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks. In response, he mounts a spirited (bipartisan) attack on such heavy-handed public policies, arguing that our country is on a slippery slope toward “paternalistic over-reach.”

I disagree.

Have a look…

Image: Anatomy of a Smoker9 by drburtoni via flickr under a creative commons license.