Several years back, we were visiting my son Tyler and his bride, Jill, in Provo, Utah.  Their first baby was up and sucking, so I suggested they replace their flashy, Audi sportscar with a used mini-van.  “Only fat people drive mini-vans,” they shrieked.  Ignoring them, I extolled mini-van virtues when we pulled alongside a Ford Aerostar at a stop light.  Filling the Ford’s pilot and co-pilot seats were two of the largest people in Utah and each was ravenously stuffing their faces from a KFC bucket perched on the dashboard.  Tyler and Jill roared at my unfortunate timing, but here is why I told this. 

A recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed Montana has an obesity rate of 25.5 percent; three times higher than the 8 percent recorded in 1990.  Apparently, waist lines are mimicking fire lines in Big Sky Country, but on the bright side, 42 other states score above us on the fat scale.  This is a big deal, but fixable as seen in Venezuela which recently became the Jenny Craig of South America.    

 In the 2000s, Hollywood leftists swooned over Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, portraying him as champion of the downtrodden.    Chavez enacted wealth redistribution programs along with cooperative farming and strict price controls on basic foods.  The little people cheered, but Venezuela’s agriculture productivity plummeted.  To stop the collapse of their collectivist food pyramid, the ruling class rationed rations.  Hugo’s protégé, Nicolas Maduro continued social giveaways under his newly created Vice Ministry of Supreme Happiness.  (No joke—that is its name.)  By February 2016, Venezuela’s shelves were bare and today there are reports of emaciated street people harvesting dogs and zoo animals for food and this brings me to my point.

 The average Venezuelan unintentionally lost 19 pounds in 2016 due to their state sponsored famine.  If America wholly adopts progressivism, we too could unintentionally lose 19 pounds after consuming our supply of res dogs and zoo critters.  How wonderful.  Controlling food is the fastest way to force submission—a socialist technique Stalin used to exterminate six million Ukrainians in 1932.  Free market capitalism produces food so abundantly, obesity becomes the greatest public health threat.  With a few exceptions, with liberty your waistline is your choice.  Starving the unwashed only occurs with progressivism, either purposely as in Stalin’s case, or secondarily after removing profit from the ag equation.  Think about it. 

 To close the loop, Tyler and Jill’s fourth baby is up and sucking, they moved to Billings, just bought a used mini-van, and next week are launching a 30-day whole food, healthy-eating challenge.  Need I say more?