Of course, texting while driving can be dangerous. Advocates of the laws banning it cite studies that claim texting can rival drunkenness in the amount that it slows drivers’ reflexes. And they don’t want to stop with just banning texting. Some want to ban use of cell phones while driving entirely, even when drivers use hands-free sets. Can’t be too safe, ya know.
Thoughtful readers might legitimately wonder how far this goes, however. I’ve been in some intense arguments while driving (an 8-hour debate with my wife over the thesis “Rawls was a wuss” comes to mind) — do Congressional Democrats propose to require drivers to refuse to converse with passengers upon pain of imprisonment? And listening to NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” (where I heard the proposal to ban all cell phone use) can often be intensely engaging. Does NPR need to be banned from car radios? (We already know that some Democrats want to ban conservative talk radio, and it is far less intellectually distracting and, by the standards of the nanny state, therefore less dangerous, right?)
This is foolishness. Not every act of stupidity can be singled out for a federal ban without unintentionally banning a whole lot of legitimate activity in the process. The nanny state wields a crude scalpel.
Of course, I’m sure Senator Schumer has a driver and will thus be free to talk on his phone even after he bans it for the rest of us mere peons.
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