I applaud the state House of Representative’s recent passage of a bill to dismantle the state’s socialist liquor monopoly. While the bill is far from ideal, it does inject a bit more freedom into a highly regulated industry.

What I find most revealing in this battle is the staunch opposition of Democrats who seek to extract a pound of flesh to feed all the factions to whom they pander, just to allow Pennsylvanians to enjoy the freedom they once enjoyed before Prohibition. This opposition leads Democrats to utter such nonsensical statements as that of state Rep. Margo Davidson, D-Delaware, who labels the recently passed bill harmful to small business — when it is small business that is currently forbidden by law from entering the liquor sales industry.

That a politician such as Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, defends the state’s socialist liquor-sales monopoly by saying privatization of alcohol sales is about “depriving people of their jobs”, as quoted in an Associated Press article, reveals a gross corruption in his conception of the function of government. The government’s role is to protect individual rights, not to provide jobs or create monopolies.

What is actually being destroyed each day that the state’s coercive monopoly persists is liberty.