There is a big campaign going on in California. Cash Cow Cops, this time the California Highway Patrol (CHP) have bought billboards up and down the state warning us to “Click it or ticket”. This catchy little slogan means that if the Cash Cow Cops catch you without your seatbelt fastened, they will pull you over and you will pay $142. Nanny state progressives are forever going on about how many lives seat belts save and how much it costs us when people are injured. Spare no cost, they tell us, to save the lives of fools. What has this country come to?
Or pay my salary.
I can remember back in high school, cars didn’t have seat belts and when they were first offered, it was as a ‘safety’ option. Gradually, car manufacturers were forced to provide seat belts on all cars. Then we had seat belts and a shoulder belt. This was a really awkward and uncomfortable arrangement until somebody figured out that you could combine them. Still, it was your choice. Wear the seat belt and protect your life. Don’t wear the seatbelt and die. Darwin would decide.
This was completely unacceptable for nanny state progressives however and seat belt laws hit California in 1986. We want you to wear seat belts, they told us, because we love you but we would never make the police ticket you. That didn’t last long because nothing riles a nanny state progressive more than somebody doing something that is bad for them. They care so much about me that it just bunches up their underwear when I do something that risks my well being. Even my mother didn’t care so much.
So, of course, they had to use the Cash Cow Cops to make us pay for our reckless behavior and to save us from the uncontrolled hospital costs for the bad apples. California is a financial basket case but we do have the resources to change the focus of the CHP from keeping the traffic flowing to being home room monitors. The additional revenue will help keep those officers’ tanks full and we all can feel good that we are no longer responsible for our own destinies since the state is now keeping us in line.
Now just to be clear, I am no dummy; no Darwin reject, I. I use my seat belt because I want to live if I have an accident. What I resent is anybody telling me to do it because they know what is best. That is damn un-American and I resent it. I have every right as an American to be a damn fool so long as I don’t hurt anybody else in the process. If I don’t wear a seat belt, I am the one at risk. Everybody else is as safe as they want to be. No where in the Constitution does it say that the state is going to step in and protect me from being a fool but that is where we are going today. Maybe you think the nanny state progressives are right and that I must be forced for my own good to wear a seat belt but as you support them, think about what they will do once they have us all clicking those seat belts. Do you want them to tell you what to eat? No more fast food for you! Look out because it is coming. Nothing can stop a nanny state progressive when it comes to keeping you safe.
