What motivates regulators and prohibitionists?

See my latest at The Partial Observer. Excerpt:

People in other countries don't really matter to Americans. Yes, we may care about them in the abstract, but they have no real bearing on our lives. There are so many people in the world dying tragically or being punished unjustly every second, it's impossible to name them all, let alone grieve about them.

There is one reason why we care so much for our fellow Americans and our country. There is one reason, for instance, why a Northeasterner gets upset about school curriculum in a Midwestern state, or a Southerner is upset about the marriage laws in the Northeast, or that everyone's concerned about the number of people without health insurance.

The reason we care is based on a law.

It's a stupid, harmful law, but it seems every country has it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a country.