Ronald found a clever way to protect McDonald’s from the tyrannical urges of the well meaning but misguided San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ so-called Healthy Food Incentive Ordinance. The clown’s answer to banning children’s meal toy giveaways? Sidestep the law completely and sell the toy for the insignificant sum of ten cents as opposed to merely giving it away with the meal. While this may simply seem like smart business, with the added pleasure of thumbing your nose at hyperactive government busybodies to make them froth with impotent rage, it also offers a sterling example to all Americans.

Our country is rapidly approaching, if indeed it has not already reached, a crossroads. As Jim Geraghty in National Review recently reported, American workers are going off the books, “developing a sizable and significant ‘off-the-books’ economy.” This isn’t a new phenomenon, but like the example McDonald’s set, it shows that the more government tightens its grip around the throats of the people the more the people will seek any and all means to circumvent the unwelcome intrusion into their lives. This is good. This is American. This is the reality of human nature clearly apparent to even casual observers.

America’s unparalleled economic success and all the benefits that go along with it have, over the course of many decades, contributed to the development of what in other periods of history would have been impossible: a government too large, too powerful, and too pervasive, yet one with a significant segment of the population’s willing support. Once trapped in the cycle, who would speak out against class warriors anxious to steal from one American in order to, in effect, buy the vote of another? The fact of the matter is that government has entwined itself into virtually every part of the people’s lives. And like 19th Century American slave holders who attempted to describe slavery as a positive good, the pro big government forces are trying to sell tyranny under a similar “positive good” lie.

The cumulative effect, as the more control government has over you, the more it wants, can be personified in politicians like Obama. In his recent speech in Kansas, our misguided president again attacked capitalism, tax-cuts, and limited government and perhaps made his die-hard belief in socialism clearer than ever before. “It’s a simple theory — one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.”

This is, of course, utter fiction. But being so used to the majority of Americans laying down like lambs, the president feels perfectly comfortable spreading this sort of misinformation around. What Obama seems to want is not only to perpetuate but to expand the system of human leeches that feed off of the system until it completely collapses under its own weight. Every economic problem we now have is a direct result of irresponsibility; the irresponsible individuals who are willing to sell their liberty for the security other people’s hard-earned money provides to them and the irresponsibility of our national leaders — in both parties — who keep themselves in power by preventing the natural consequences of people’s irresponsibility from catching up with them. From the individual to large corporations, government handouts destroy accountability and initiative and are snowballing out of control. It is easy to fault Obama, who certainly hasn’t helped matters, but the problem is much deeper than one president.

San Francisco’s ban on fast-food toys may seem like a very small matter. Yet it is another step down a long road towards even more control over people’s lives. Start with children and once you have them it isn’t so hard to convince the right people in power that adults, who were too stupid to make the right dietary decisions for their children, must now themselves be too stupid to make their own choices.

We can understand the logic of getting children to eat healthier. San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, who introduced the ban, has a young daughter himself and he obviously only wants the best for her. He argues that the “pester power” of children is enough to force parents to purchase a Happy Meal. Therein lies the root of the problem; Mar’s problem, that is, and all like him. Parents, and people in general, need to meet their responsibilities and not try to either lay their failures at the feet of others or abdicate their personal responsibility to collective government control.

Mar’s logic appears to be that people are incapable of acting as responsible parents and that they simply cannot say “no” to those who they are in authority over and should, supposedly, be vastly more intellectually sophisticated. Then again, I’ve met six-year olds with a greater grasp of property rights than many of our politicians have. Nevertheless, “no” means “no” and it isn’t a hard concept though it might take numerous lessons for a child to finally learn. Man up, as the expression goes, and just say no to your children. When they grow up, they will not only respect you but be grateful to you as well. Easy? Of course not. But necessary? Absolutely. Otherwise you get “leaders” like Mar who think their whims should be imposed on your life.

How many hours were wasted by McDonald’s and similar restaurants that give away toys with kids’ meals in either preparing to lay down for the ordinance or in combating it? How much money was lost by these companies due to Mar’s whim? When a company has to change the way they do something, even as seemingly simple as serving a Happy Meal, it costs money. Reprogramming counter registers, informing employees of the change, notifying customers and countless other details not only impact a single location but also have to be multiplied over an entire city’s chain of fast food restaurants. Even making the decision to refuse to humor Mar and instead circumvent his plan still cost McDonald’s as they surely had to consult lawyers, spend countless man hours in meetings discussing the ordinance and its possible impact, and then actually implementing their decision to fight.

As a conservative, it obviously cheers my soul to see McDonald’s stand up to the nanny mentality that pervades so much of our society today. It calls to mind the example of Rosa Parks, who showed real courage in defying a law she knew to be wrong. Or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who after abolition fought tirelessly for women’s rights. Washington, Gandhi and others also come to mind. Men and women who stood up in the face of injustice, of the powerful, of entire governments to work, and in some cases fight, for not just the empty slogan of “change” but concrete concepts such as liberty and equal rights.

And while it is tongue-in-cheek to add Ronald McDonald to so prestigious a list, there is a lot to be learned from any person, business, or organization who says enough is enough and takes decisive action to circumvent, defy, or merely ignore the demands of invasive government meddling in our private affairs. We cannot lay down forever. At some point government at all levels will have to be taken to task and shown that the liberties of Americans, purchased and maintained at so great a price, are not to be trifled with.

Jeff O’Bryant is the author of “Up into the Hills – A Brief History of Catoosa County” and holds two degrees: a bachelor’s in education and a bachelor’s with honors in history. He can be contacted at jeffobryant@catt.com.