The dilemma for our fractured political times: Whither common sense? Can ideologues step back from their entrenched stances to enhance our nation’s welfare? This is a plea for small-step decisions to demonstrate that legislators have a smidgen of common sense.
Case one: Raising the Age for Purchase of Automatic Rifles. In the rhetoric swirling around guns, common sense is rare. At the federal level, lunacy reigns: in February, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado), Rep. George Santos (R-New York), and Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Georgia) introduced H.R.1095, that would declare the AR-15 style rifle the “National Gun of the United States.” Automatic rifles have no place in a hunter’s arsenal, nor in a homeowner’s bedside drawer. But that is beside the point. I concede that gun-loving adults might want to buy these death-agents. But surely raising the age for purchase from 18 to 21 smacks of common sense. Texas has had its share of massacres. Raising the age will not necessarily deter the mass-murderers. But why not make it slightly harder to buy one? Why not put a tiny brake on access to these weapons?
Case two: Restricting junk food and soda from federal food benefits. The nation suffers from an epidemic of obesity, especially among younger people, poorer people, people of color. The obesity hurts not just them, driving up their rates of disease, but hurts the nation, driving up our overall health care costs, lowering the overall productivity of our workforce. In a May 8 Wall Street Journal column, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) argued to get these foods off the food stamp tab. Along the way he cited experts and politicos from across the spectrum, Democrat and Republican, who have urged the federal food-spigot to stop paying for empty calories. People could still buy what they crave. But Uncle Sam would no longer subsidize obesity. The purveyors of sodas and desserts cite logistical impediments: how to categorize so many of the packaged foods, the burden on stores, the questionable impact on purchasing. And, for more than a decade, lobbyists have heeded these objections, even while obesity has soared. Common sense should reign now.
Case three: Making airlines not just accommodate but welcome people with disabilities. Airline travel has segued from the adventure of years past to an ordeal, beset with delays, re-routed luggage, and cancellations. Visit an airport to see distraught passengers clustered around a gate, wondering whether their flight, delayed for hours, will leave that day. Disabled passengers wonder: will the airplane take my wheelchair? Will it fit? Will it roll off the luggage carousel in working order? What about a walker? Can I bring it onboard? Can I check it? Will it arrive intact intact? Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) introduced the Mobility Ads on Board Improve Lives and Empower All Act. If it passes, the US Transportation Department would report on the damage that occurs to wheelchairs and other mobility aids. Airlines would need to tell passengers in advance whether their wheelchair or walker would fit safely on the plane, and would study whether some chairs and walkers might fit inside the main cabin. Hardly a draconian “ask,” simply a commonsensical, and compassionate, one.
Case four: Traffic safety rules. Those rules save lives. Each state, sometimes each county, grapples with the question: how much to rein in drivers’ zeal-to-drive? The regulations run the gamut: speed limits in school zones (Florida just nixed that), graduated licenses for new drivers, bans for hand-held cell phones, bans for texting, primary seat belt laws for drivers, seat belt laws for rear-seat passengers. interlock ignition systems for people convicted of driving while drunk (the law in 26 states), required helmets for motorcyclists (a few states pass on this), licenses for “mature drivers” (37 states require accelerated renewal, road tests, restrict on-line or mailed renewals). To save the lives of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians, states should pass these commonsensical laws.
Our solons cannot stop fighting about abortion, the debt, immigration, Medicaid … but surely they can sometimes come down on the side of common sense.
Joan Retsinas is a sociologist who writes about health care in Providence, R.I. Email joan.retsinas@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2023
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