Free to Choose

As we've pointed out in the past, free countries are always the most prosperous countries. From the former Soviet Union to still-communist China, every inch a society takes towards free-market capitalism results in unheralded prosperity and improved quality of life.

The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is now appreciated primarily for fireworks and barbeque. Yet more than any other celebration, Independence Day is the quintessential American holiday because it clearly enunciates liberty and individual rights as the basic premises on which this country was founded. The Declaration of Independence, presented on July 4, 1776, put forth that all men are endowed with the rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In America, man functions as an independent entity, free to live his own life independent of the church, government or so-called "public good."

For many years, this country honored and preserved those principles. Yet, slowly, we've been steered away from the rugged individualism towards a collectivist free-for-all in which individual rights are routinely compromised, challenged, or tossed out the window altogether.

Examples abound. A few months ago we highlighted how my hometown of Chicago, once a bastion of economic and political freedom, has been turning into a certified nanny state where smoking, cell-phone usage and even foie gras have all come under governmental control.

Unbelievably, a new low was reached this past week when Alderman Ed Burke, a prominent elected politician, proposed a new law that would force Chicago restaurants to stop cooking with oils containing trans fats — artery clogging lipids that, when eaten in abundance, can contribute to heart disease. Innumerable foods ranging from doughnuts to margarine, funnel cake to french fries would be affected. Restaurants that served foods containing trans fats would face fines of up to $1,000 a day.

The proposal would be comical if it didn't come on the heels of an equally absurd law passed last month, when Chicago's council banned city restaurants from serving foie gras — or fatty duck liver.

Burke claims the trans-fat ban, which would be the only such ordinance in the nation, would make Chicago a healthier city. "Why not start here to talk about what government can do to keep people more healthy?" Burke told a local news outlet. "If they can't resolve to do it themselves, maybe municipal government ought to step in."

Well, if public health is Burke's goal, the good alderman might as well propose a bill implementing government-mandated calisthenics and spin class. And even if the alderman's goal is healthier Chicagoans, the ordinance is laughably ineffective. Burke's law would curtail onion rings, for example, but leave it perfectly legal to gorge oneself on Häagen-Dazs or Hershey Bars — arguably unhealthy foods both which contain no trans fat.

Of course, the real issue here isn't about health at all, but about the right of an American citizen to choose to eat whatever foods he wishes. The role of government, local or otherwise, isn't to restrict our freedoms but protect them. Chicagoans have every right to eat whatever fattening, caloric of artery-clogging meals they please. Of course, Alderman Burke is free to spend his lunch break at the salad bar. But he has no authority to restrict the foods law-abiding citizens choose to put into their own bodies.

A statement given to a local TV station best exemplifies Burke's Orwellian rationale: "If we can ban foie gras, we can ban this," he said.

And there you have it, folks. Under men like Alderman Ed Burke, a career politician for more than 37 years, this country has become a land where everything — right down to the foods you put in your body, can be regulated by the majority mob. Forget "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" this Independence Day. In Chicago, and increasingly in the nation as a whole — providing one can get enough votes — anything goes.

It's an offensive and filthy trend that will have long-term negative implications for our currency, our economy and the very freedom on which this country was built.