Smoking bans are not terribly important in the big picture of statism. Doesn’t rank up there with economic policy or foreign affairs.
But it’s a good litmus test for conservative candidates for higher office. Just like global warming lip service politicians.
If a candidate believes that SHS or AGW junk science will kill us all he/she is either
A. Too stupid to have any power over fellow citizens or
B. They know it’s bogus but believe it serves a gubmint purpose. Which makes them more dangerous than A.
It’s bigger than you think.
One of the dangerous things about statism is how they wear you down. If you’re hit with 10,000 tiny little regulations, you start to feel surrounded.
By the time the big and egregious things start happening, you’re so worn down already, and already mentally tuned to having state interventionism in your life, that you’re less inclined to resist.
Think of it as a way of training.
Being trained to accept statism is a big, BIG problem.