I’m not a clock-watcher, but I suspect the latest I ever walked out of a bar — in DeKalb County or elsewhere — was probably at least four hours earlier than the 4 a.m. closing time now allowed for bars in that suburban Atlanta county.
Maybe it’s because for most of my adult life I was a member of the Republican Party which, as those of us who have watched politics for a living know, is a party populated exclusively by teetotalers. I just never felt the need to hang around bars until the not-so-wee hours of the morning. But, hey, a lot of people do. And why shouldn’t they be able to; whether they elect to do so for the right reasons or the wrong ones?
Why are we yet again now facing the prospect of a government entity — in this instance, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners — threatening to curtail further the ability of business owners to control the circumstances under which they make their living, by deciding how long they are allowed to remain open?
I know, I know. Some people get rowdy when they drink. And I know — having walked Bourbon Street in New Orleans many a time during the midday hours when the stench of urine and vomit from the previous night’s nocturnal drinking hung heavy in the air — people urinate and occasionally upchuck when they drink too much or too fast. Yet, I suspect also that such things occur when people have drunk too much or too fast regardless of the time of night (or day) in which they do so. And, those of us in the greater Atlanta area know that the concentration of bars in the Buckhead area until recently was at least a factor contributing to a number of tragic shootings in that locale a few years back.
I know all that. But still, the notion that the bad behavior of a minority of people in a given category — those who drink at bars, for example — should be dealt with by the heavy hand of government limiting how that entire group of individuals should behave, strikes me as discredited and rather authoritarian. Maybe that’s just the libertarianism in me crying out, but isn’t it — or at least shouldn’t it — be a fundamental principle of governance in the Land of the Free that behavior harming someone else (such as driving under the influence or shooting someone regardless of the state of one’s alcohol consumption) is the appropriate focus of government regulation and prosecution? Should we lump an entire citizenry into a category defined by the bad behavior of the few and then prohibit everyone from engaging in a class of behavior?
Where does this lead us? We decide to attack the problem of early-morning bad behavior prompted by late-night drinking at a bar — a type of behavior practiced by a relatively small percentage of those who patronize bars — by restricting the times at which anyone can go into a bar for a drink. Isn’t this the same sort of discredited philosophy that underlay the Draconian gun control law passed by the District of Columbia more than 30 years ago? This law disarmed the law-abiding population of our nation’s capitol city so the criminal element could operate more brazenly. It gave rise to unprecedented levels of violent crime.
One also does not have to look far to discern future targets of the DeKalb do-gooder’s nanny statism. If the societal goal is to reduce consumption of alcohol, then should not these 21st-century Carrie Nations also further restrict the ability of convenience stores to sell beer and wine 24 hours a day? And let’s not forget the other examples of the accelerating drive toward forced good behavior — tobacco usage and overeating. Would not forcing fast-food outlets to close their drive-through windows earlier in the night (or perhaps on odd-numbered days), and prohibiting the sale of tobacco at certain hours, reduce smoking and overeating? There are those who defend the move in DeKalb County to force bars to close earlier on the grounds it will “improve the quality of life.” Regardless of whether that is the case, shouldn’t our “quality of life” be measured more by the freedom we enjoy rather than the control government wields? And shouldn’t citizens’ property rights — including those of business owners — also be considered part of our “quality of life”? On Nov. 13, when the DeKalb Commission takes up the bar-closing matter, we’ll have the opportunity to see how it answers these questions.
• Former congressman and U.S. Attorney Bob Barr practices law in Atlanta. Web site: www.bobbarr.org.
