Councilman: "We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives;” Uh, wait, did I say that?

Recently the city council of Santa Barbara made it a criminal offense for waiters to give people straws.  Seriously.  3rd-offenders would be jailed for six months! 

Critics blasted the socialist council for being...well, nutty as fruitbats.  But Councilman Jesse Dominguez doubled down, saying “Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.”

In saying this, Councilman Dominguez inadvertently let slip the primary purpose of "progressives," Democrats and socialists today:  They're convinced they're way smarter than you, so not only do they know what's best for you--always--they believe it's just peachy to force you to do as they demand, regardless of what you think.

Perhaps realizing that his comment revealed a dirty secret about the Democrat mind-set, Dominguez tried to walk back his gaffe:

“A few weeks ago I made a string of words in a rhetorical fashion about regulation, and they were not taken as rhetorical and that’s my fault so I want to apologize.”

Ah: "I made a string of words in a rhetorical fashion," eh?  Conservative bloggers weren't buying it.

The essence of politics is power--and the essence of power is control.  Who do we want exercising power/control over our daily affairs?

For our entire history the individual has been at war with the state over the question of liberty vs. control. In a rational society, there are sacrifices individuals make for the good of the community. Liberty, after all, must have limits or anarchy reigns. So for 230 years, we have battled each other over differing concepts of individual liberty and the limits of state power.

Lately, individual liberty has been getting knifed by a cadre of statists who believe have the right to tell everyone else what to do and how to live their lives, down to the most trivial detail.  They enforce their will by using the unlimited power of the state to threaten fines or jail time should we fail to bow to them.

They couch their tyranny in soothing words, but the result is catastrophic for liberty.  In truth, far too many Americans have abandoned ideas like personal responsibility and freedom of choice.

So councilman Dominguez may have let the mask slip to reveal his true intent--but in the Peoples' Republic of Santa Barbara he'll probably be re-elected anyway.

H/T Rick Moran at PJMedia.