Cola Wars

Victories for us "Conservatarians" are becoming harder and harder these days.  That's why I was inordinately happy last night when a New York State Judge struck down Nazi Bloomberg's attempt to save the unwashed masses from the evils of large Coca-Colas.  It's probably a Pyrrhic victory, since some liberal judge somewhere up the judicial food chain will likely uphold this latest version of a Nanny-Stater's wet dream...but I'll take my good news wherever I can find it these days.

Just how short-lived this victory may be was driven home when I read a new poll from Marist University.  It showed that while 53% of New York City residents opposed the soda restrictions, 42% supported it.  42%!  Wow.  I can't stop thinking about that number.

I guess I live a sheltered life and hang around only a small group of like-minded people.  I cannot think of one person I know who would support something like this.  Not one.  I can't even think of casual acquaintances who would think this was a good idea.  Yet 42% of New Yorkers surveyed think that the Government making such a basic decision for us is a good idea.

What do I make of this?  Are the demographics in the Big Apple so skewed that a near-majority have no problem with something I think is among the most odious proposals I've ever heard?  Is the rank-and-file of Danville and Pittsylvania County really THAT different from New York?  Am I hopelessly out of touch?  Or could it be something much more sinister?

Are we now witnessing the first real fruits of decades of education that is designed more to indoctrinate than illuminate?  I can only imagine what this poll would have been like if it were administered in, say 1980.  My guess is that MUCH fewer than 42% would support such an idea.  What has happened in the intervening generation?

I have often said that President Obama is not the worst thing in this nation.  The worst thing is an electorate that could vote for someone who has made no secret about his love affair with central command politics.  Are we past the point now where people are more than willing to give up what I consider to be rudimentary decision-making power, just so we can keep our brains free to absorb the latest reality TV series?

It makes we wonder what a similar poll would say ten years from now.  20 years down the road.  It also makes me shudder.