Opinion: ‘The Boiling Frog In The Water’

Kevin Batts

The natural inclination of government is to justify its existence by granting itself newer and broader authority over peoples lives. Its growth further separates the governing body from the founding charters and compacts that restricted and defined the purposes of that government. Liberty is almost always the victim of this sort of oppressive outgrowth. Some have likened it to
“the boiling frog in water anecdote”.

I refer to it as incrementalism.

I would define it as a method of governing by which the adding of laws or authority of governing parties using many small often ambiguous, incremental changes instead of a few large laws or policies. These sort of things can happen over time regardless of political party.

Man is imperfect so he can and will create imperfect ways of governing other people’s lives. Republicanism is the immediate remedy of this imperfection. That is “small r” republicanism, not the party itself. Republicanism is the ideology of governing a society or state as a republic. The head of state is a representative of the people who hold popular sovereignty rather than the people being subjects of the head of state. This is a 1000ft overview of what I would consider some of my more core Conservative beliefs. I don’t remember reading anywhere in that breakdown that we needed government to protect us from hoodies.

A senator in the State Senate of Oklahoma just submitted a bill that would make it a criminal offense to wear a hoodie in the state of Oklahoma. When I first heard about this story I thought to myself, “This is clearly fake, Men in the legislature of Oklahoma are limited government types like myself, so there is no way this could be anything but a misrepresentation of something
else”.

I finally had time a few days ago to look into SB13. I quickly found the text of the bill on a government website. As I looked over the language I was shocked at what I saw. The maximum punishment was up to one year in prison or a $500 fine for wearing a hoodie! There were exemptions of course for religious groups, holidays and inclement weather. Keep in mind, there are already laws on the books that address face concealment in relation to crime. Also keep in mind as a veteran I respect some of the things the senator has done while on the Veterans Affairs committee.

I don’t know what irritated me more, the fact that you can get a year in jail for wearing a hoodie or the fact that there is a legislator in Oklahoma that thinks he can tell its citizens when they can wear certain articles of clothing. My next thought was, “How many other legislators would vote for this type of control?”. I’m sure Mary Fallon would veto such a measure right? We have to let it be known that without a doubt, this is big government.

We sit back and laugh at states like New York for banning sugary drinks and salt usage in restaurants. We look at their over burdening tax code that targets cigarette smokers. A tax that especially targets the poor. We recognize these laws suppress liberty and seek to mold men into what the state and city would consider good. We breathe easy knowing that we don’t do things like that down here. We proclaim, “That’s big government and we as Conservatives believe wholeheartedly in limited government”. Our politicians are guys like Jim Bridenstein, Tom Coburn and many others. We have to be intellectually honest with ourselves when we look at these things.

The same arguments they’re using to pass those laws in New York are the same arguments our leaders are using here to pass similarly restrictive laws. The same arguments used by Democrats to pass gun control are the same ones used to push this law. It’s an emotional “knee jerk argument” by a government obsessed with doing stuff. With all due respect, Senator Barrington, we don’t want you to do stuff!

Kevin Batts of Atoka is the major domo of The Red River Chronicle.