When are the nanny staters going to learn that there’s a wide swath of the American public who are going to do exactly the opposite of what you tell them, because Americans don’t like to be bossed around? The fastest way to encourage Americans to do something is to ban it. The fastest way to get them to stop doing something is to mandate it. We just don’t like being told what to do.

Tam, “Eat Your Spinach“

Both the nanny-staters and daddy-staters think it’s their electoral mandate to keep us from making bad decisions.  If it’s not “drive a car that doesn’t use much fuel” it’s “you shouldn’t be drinking or smoking that”.  We do best when we are left to make our own decisions and are left to deal with our own consequences.