Bluegrass Beacon -- Smoking ban policy déjà vu: There they go again

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Those attending legislative meetings this year in Frankfort may wonder if this legislative session’s motto is: “In God We Trust.”

Signs with that declaration now hang in meeting rooms throughout the capitol. However, Senate President Robert Stivers is quick to note they are paid for with private donations not taxpayer dollars.

I’m considering raising funds for signs that contain what should be the motto for the 2015 session of the Kentucky General Assembly, as stated by then-candidate Ronald Reagan in his Oct. 28, 1980 campaign debate with President Jimmy Carter.

After Carter finished droning on about the perceived virtues of “national health insurance” while accusing Reagan of “campaigning around the nation against Medicare,” the Gipper – who understood that brevity is the soul of wit and the stuff of winning political campaigns – simply looked at him with that trademark smile, quipping: “There you go again.”

While issues are different, history is repeating itself in Kentucky.

“There” proponents of government-imposed smoking bans go once again – using credibility-challenged polls to gin up the perception that, as Louisville’s WFPL reporter Rae Hodge claims, “there is a growing popularity among Kentuckians” and that the “prospects are looking better than ever” for a statewide ban imposed by Frankfort.

However, If the polling would have suggested a strong opposition to smoking bans, would reporters be as equally giddy in reporting, say, that “prospects look better than ever that the private-property rights of businesses, liberties of individuals and sovereignty of communities will be protected, after all?”

Hodge’s story contained 552 words favoring bans – including quotes from four different smoking-ban proponents – and only 40 words reporting on the opposition without a single quote.

Is that reporting you can trust?

“Republicans have traditionally chafed at the notion of a state mandate on private businesses,” she wrote in a token nod to opponents.

Oh, the horror of it all – that there might actually be Republicans who “chafe” at the thought that mighty Frankfort would prohibit them from allowing legal activities on properties they purchase, invest in and privately own.

I wonder: If the polling numbers were different, would the story have read: “Democrats have traditionally chafed at the notion of protecting rights of communities to pass – and then overturn – smoking bans as several local governments have done?”

Another “there you go again” moment comes from polling that fails to differentiate between smoking bans on public and private properties.

In a column about this time a year ago, I addressed the importance of understanding what the poll question is – a relevant issue since smoking-ban proponents release these polls on an annual basis.

I noted that most respondents to a poll about speeding, for example, would answer “yes” to: “Do you believe it’s legal to drive 55 mph?” Most would disagree, though, if you asked: “Do you believe it’s legal to drive 55 mph near a school or in a work zone?”

Most Kentuckians agree on banning smoking in publicly owned places. But proponents know that most don’t favor a government-imposed ban on privately owned property. So their irresponsible strategy, which makes their conclusions shaky at best, is to deny poll-takers the option of choosing that answer.

In that 1980 debate, Carter accused Reagan of “campaigning against Medicare” when, in fact, Reagan has simply favored a different policy that still provided coverage for seniors, but with a better approach.

Proponents of government-dictated smoking bans claim that opponents of such policies don’t care about the health and well-being of their fellow Kentuckians – an assertion that’s nearly as misleading as their polling.

Rather, it’s just that opponents of more and bigger state government believe there’s a better path that allows individuals and local communities to address the smoking-ban issue.

It would be good to go “there” again.

Jim Waters is president of the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. Reach him at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com. Read previously published columns at www.bipps.org.