If dogs run free, then why not me?
Across the swamp of time…
— “If Dogs Run Free” by Bob Dylan, 1970.
I consider myself a reasonably free person. I imagine most Americans see themselves the same way. ‘Reasonably free.’
Unless they’re incarcerated. (I’m referring here to the 2 million Americans incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and local jails.)
Which is not to suggest that “freedom” is always a good thing. It all depends on who’s free to do what to whom.
…as will be discussed momentarily.
According to Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics and trade at the Cato Institute, “red” states tend to brag about low taxes and less government regulation, and that’s admittedly a certain type of freedom. You know, economic freedom.
“Blue” states, meanwhile, boast about a different range of freedoms, like the freedom to vote, and the freedom to kiss a person of the same sex in public. Again, a certain type of freedom. Personal freedom.
But that’s if you want to compare “red” states and “blue” states.
The Cato Institute took a different tack and colored the states in shades of purple, because they’re all a mix of red and blue “freedoms”. (As we know, red and blue, mixed, makes purple. But sort of a muddy-looking purple.)
Two states earned the grade “A”, meaning “Amazing”. And several states got labeled “F”. You can guess what “F” means.
The Institute also ranked the states from “1” (best) to “50” (worst) based on their total “freedom score.”
As we can see the American West kicks ass, where freedom is concerned… if you don’t count California, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
The report scored each state on 97 “policy variables” across 10 categories of economic and personal freedom: fiscal, housing, occupational, tech/consumer, education, speech, medicine, firearms, policing, and recreation.
Colorado got a “freedom score” of 7.8 out of a possible 10, putting us in 11th place nationally. Not the top of the heap, but pretty close.
Eleven states earned an “F”, with New York and Hawaii at the very bottom of the barrel.
Speaking as a person who has visited both of those two states, I view the ranking of Hawaii as somewhat unfair, because the Institute didn’t include, in their criteria, the “freedom to surf big waves” and the “freedom to wear a bikini when doing a job interview.”
People in New York are generally over-dressed and never go surfing, so I’m comfortable with their ranking.
But as I said before, “freedom” is not always a good thing.
In California, for example, people not only have the freedom to kiss someone of the same sex in public; they also have the freedom to film it and include it an a movie rated PG-13.
In Arizona, people have the freedom to drain underground aquifers dry, to grow alfalfa that’s then shipped overseas to feed horses in Saudi Arabia.
In Alabama, folks have the freedom to play Lynyrd Skynyrd over the Walmart store sound system.
In Utah, you are not free to have three wives, but guys do it anyway. ‘Three’ is the number of wives you need to get into Heaven. Or so they say.
In Texas, a person has the freedom to build oversized rockets possibly capable of traveling to Mars, and fire them off from a launchpad built directly adjacent to a wildlife sanctuary.
In Key West, Florida, people have the freedom to let their roosters and chickens roam the city streets. So watch where you step.
In Washington DC — which was not included in the Cato Institute report, for obvious reasons — people have the freedom to control almost everybody else’s freedom, while doing pretty much anything they goddamn please… legal or illegal.
But considering that the U.S. spends over $80 billion keeping 2 million citizens locked up in prisons and jails, and that the lost productivity from incarceration reduces the economy by another $300 billion, freedom seems like something of a bargain.
To paraphrase Bob Dylan: “If chickens run free, then why not we… across the swamp of time…”
Dogs, chickens, polygamists, politicians.
“A” grade or “F” grade. Is there really any difference?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.