Another freedom quietly falls in California
By William F. B. O'Reilly@wfborThere’s a very good cigar made by Rafael Nodal — the cigar maker not to be confused with Rafael Nadal the tennis sensation.
The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua is so good that it won Cigar Aficionado's coveted “Cigar of the Year” distinction in 2019. Savvy buyers can get the “stick” at auction for around $7.
But not in California. Not anymore.
Under a new Golden State law signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom, machine-made cigars and handmade “premium” smokes costing under $12 can no longer be sold/ Cigars are only for the rich in California now.
How progressive.
This story won’t get a lot of attention — U.S. cities are ablaze with political tension and COVID-19 lurks in the air — but it should. Every time one of our freedoms is taken away we should pause and ask ourselves “where's this all going?”
Consider what California's new law says: government can fix the price of a product; it can effectively outlaw manufacturing techniques that make a product less expensive; it can regulate human behavior based on income and it can eliminate free-market competition by choosing one product brand over another. Keep in mind that California didn’t ban cigars, just inexpensive ones.
California legislators ambushed budget cigar smokers and the cigar industry itself because they were easy targets; only around 7% of Americans are daily cigar smokers, hardly a potent constituency. But they wouldn’t have gotten away with it without a rally flag so often used by nanny state legislators: It’s all about the kids.
In this case it was vaping, a lousy habit for sure, but one that has gotten a sizable number of Americans off cigarettes. Many popular vaping products are flavored, and that’s where legislators in states, including New York, began. Instead of cracking down on underage vape sales or doubling down on public health messaging, specific flavors got outlawed, like grape, mint and strawberry.
That led to discussions about menthol cigarettes. So Massachusetts banned them along with all vaping products (unless they're consumed in state-licensed smoking parlors of course) and then came California which banned vaping, menthol cigarettes and non-premium cigars all in the name of the kids. The California Senate voted 33-4 in favor of the ban; the Assembly voted 58-1.
When did we start handing away personal choices so readily? In New York it began in 1984, I'd argue, with Gov. Mario Cuomo's adult seat belt law.
There were justified howls from civil libertarians on the left and right at the time who argued that an important line was being crossed, but we hardly even noticed last month when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a new law requiring rear seat belts for anyone over 16. Maybe it was the nightly riots in Portland or the steady hum of moving trucks parading across the George Washington Bridge that stole our attention away. Maybe we're just inured to government telling us what to do.
I get it in the particular. Seat belts save lives and smoking is foolhardy, but so is smoking marijuana, and New York legislators seem to be in love with that idea. Gambling's a dead-end, too, but the revenue it provides makes it OK. Marlboros can stay, but Newports have to go. So go the arbitrary whims of people put in charge.
It can get worse: Mike Bloomberg, an otherwise solid New York City mayor, tried to eighty-six Big Gulps and regulate salt in restaurants. Those measures eventually got defeated, but only after millions of public and private dollars were spent on court and lobbying fees.
One needs to remind legislators here and in California that allowing people to make their own choices isn't the same as endorsing harmful behaviors. It's simply a defense of freedom, which used to be pretty important to us as Americans.
As for cheap cigars, "they come in handy," prolific cigar smoker President Ulysses S. Grant once observed, "they stifle the odor of cheap politicians.”
God I miss that spirit.
William F. B. O'Reilly is a consultant to Republicans.
William F. B. O'Reilly is a Newsday Opinion columnist. He works as a corporate and political communications consultant. He works with clients on the Republican side of the aisle.
