How the Nanny State Can Be the Conservatives’ Best Friend
Here’s a story that conservatives ought to make national news.
REDDING, Calif. — Shasta County health officials are cracking down on an 86-year-old disabled World War II veteran who has been selling homemade fruitcakes for more than a decade.
The Department of Environmental Health cites an obscure law banning food businesses in private homes.
Jack Melton of Redding gave away many of his pecan-filled fruitcakes. But health officials saw a small handmade window sign offering some for sale.
Health specialist Fern Hastings says Melton must use a commercial bakery that has passed a health inspection even if he gives his cakes to the public.
Melton says the 10- to 14-dozen fruitcakes he sold each year helped supplement his Social Security benefits.
So here’s a guy who’s selling a dozen fruitcakes a year to put a little extra money in his pocket. He’s not hurting anyone. Indeed, according to this story, no one actually made a complaint against him. His fruitcakes didn’t make anyone sick. No one slipped on a stray chunk of pineapple and broke their necks. No crook used one of Melton’s fruitcakes to rob a bank or anything like that. What Melton did was far worse. He ran afoul of the Nanny State.
The GOP should be collecting these stories and making sure that we Americans get to see them, no matter where we live. What happened to Melton can happen to any one of us. He should not have been forced to stop making his handful of fruitcakes. He should not have been required to beg permission from a government bureaucrat nor should he have had to let the government wet its beak before it allowed him to take a dime from anyone else.
Conservatives need to make sure that voters know that one of the things we want more than anything else is the sudden and permanent end of the Nanny State. Limited government is a great phrase to use, but it’s sterile and largely doesn’t mean much to the average American. Jack Melton is a real person whose story will matter if we can tell it.
(via Greg Pollowitz)
Other Posts of Interest:
- New York Soon to Become Miserable, Depopulated Place, Thanks to David Paterson
- How Helen Jones-Kelley Can Help Freedom and Conservatism
- Let’s Stop Using Teddy Roosevelt as a Role Model, Please.
Category: Conservatism, The Rise of the Nanny State
Unfortunately this story is becoming less of a rarity. When we decide to sue a company because their coffee is too hot, this is the crap that must be endured. The sense of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility is tragic.