Something NOT in the Air

We here in Wisconsin are lucky. We have not one, but two candidates for governor who are in favor of more cancer.
That’s right. They want MORE cancer. Both Republicans Mark Neumann and Scott Walker are competing to see who can be more supportive of those insidious dividing cells by repealing the long fought-for and incredibly popular statewide smoke-free law.

I guess the newly carcinogen free air has been so invigorating it’s gone straight to their heads causing delirium and dementia.
After all the law passed with strong bipartisan support. In fact, by my count 17 Republicans supported the law and 7 were actually co-sponsors. I’m guessing that’s because cancer doesn’t really care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, just as it doesn’t care if you’re a banker or a bartender.
(Of course it’s only the bartender that suffers a greater risk of dying from cancer with Walker and Neumann in charge--but who cares. I’m sure they have great health insurance).

Walker’s amnesia on the issue seems particularly severe. One day says it’s too soon to tell if the less-than-a-week-old law is working and should be repealed and the next he’s certain it’s a violation of personal liberty. Considering 24 hours is hard for Walker to remember, I’m sure he doesn’t recall joining such renegade liberty-hating groups like the American Cancer Society or the American Lung Association for a celebration making Milwaukee International smoke-free.

Oh no, that was then. Now Walker and Neumann are in a contest to see who’s the most conservative of them all, which means smoking and secondhand smoke no longer cause cancer, they cause patriotism!

Kids, grab your respirators AND your  American flags, it’s time for a fish fry!

What’s really sad is these are the candidates vying to lead our state into the future, yet they’re staking out positions firmly rooted in the past.
It’s was 2006 when the U.S. Surgeon General declared, “The debate is over. The science is clear. Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard.”   Yet here we are in 2010 with two serious gubernatorial candidates ignoring decades of hard medical science in favor of subjecting an entire class of workers to more cancer, heart disease and serious respiratory illness.

While we’re at it, why don’t we go ahead and repeal food safety laws, abolish fire codes and put the cigarettes back next to the Bubalicious Bubble Gum. After all regulation of property owners and businesses is apparently a violation of civil liberties, never mind common sense.

Wisconsin’s smoke-free law passed like it has in 27 other states--including such crazy liberal bastions as Kansas, Montana and South Dakota--because it makes sense and is good public policy not because it’s a violation of someone’s supposed right to make others sick and not because it‘s a Socialist plot against property rights.

Wisconsin’s lawmakers did what was right and what their constituents wanted--both Republicans and Democrats--when they voted in favor of a statewide smoke-free law.  They also helped the state make progress in its fight against cancer.

But that presumes you’re against cancer to begin with, which up until now I thought was a pretty safe assumption to be had. Little did I  know this election year Wisconsin’s Republican candidates for governor have chosen their running mate and it’s cancer.