A dilemma in Conservatism

You'll need to sign up with the Austin American Statesman to read this article, but if you want to take my word for it, there was a vote on May 7 of this year in Austin where 66,000 voters turned out to approve a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

Now, on its face, this seems fine...and certainly in keeping with the trend in recent years to PC smokers into the shadows.

Where the Conservatism dilemma rears its ugly head for me is here , where the ban is now being challenged in court 6 months later. It would appear that, since 52% of votes were cast in favor of the ban, no judge should be able to overturn the will of the voters; this is what we true conservatives might describe as judicial activism or legislating from the bench. I abhor this practice from judges; have in fact been a victim of it in my personal life. My problem in this particular case is that only 16 % of registered voters turned out to cast their ballots regarding this ban in the first place(again, taken from the Statesman article above).

We can be sure of one thing as citizens; if we are part of a movement to enact legislation, we are most assuredly going to be there to cast our votes when the ballot is presented to us. What seems to be missing in this smoking ban story, and in the next 2 sets of elections, is whether we are doing an adequate job of bringing everyone who WASN'T involved in the movement out to the polls. A lesson we should hold close to us as the 06 & 08 fights start to unfold is that we better make sure we get everyone to the polls, not just the activists & the blogging faithful.

I smoke. I am banned from doing so because 52 % of 16% of the Austin registered voters has spoken and told me I can't. I don't want this judge to overturn the ban because that would be legislating from the bench (something I am vehemently against), even though I would personally benefit from it. I plan to remember EVERYTHING I am forced to do because of active, vocal minorities come these next 2 elections. I hope ALL of my fellow conservatives do as well.