Many people today believe (many through no fault of their own because the educational system has indoctrinated them to believe it.) that rights come from laws, that rights are the same thing as laws. Both are equal in meaning and intent. People in the government create a law and then present it to the citizen as a right. Under the correct federal system of the constitution, nothing can be further from the truth. Rights and laws have nothing to do with each other. A right is something you inherit at birth. A right comes from God, not people in a government. The United States government makes laws to protect the rights you already have that were given to you by providence when you were born. This concept was always essential to American liberty because the founders knew that men who create laws then grant them as rights to the citizenry can also create laws to take those rights away. In Europe during the founding period in America, kings granted rights to their subjects acting as a go between, between divine providence and the people. This is why the founders concept of natural born rights was so essential as the founding principle of American liberty. Jefferson's words ring immortal within his document of secession from Great Britain: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." And as the founders wisely subscribed to the concept of life. liberty, and the pursuit of happiness instead of life, liberty, and property knowing that one day, slavery would be abolished and no man could then claim another man as his property, they also subscribed to natural rights from divine providence granted at birth so no man could ever create any law to take any inalienable right away.
Among them, meaning there are many more. So before the thread is closed because you haven't provided a link, when it should just be moved to the political opinion section, could you list them all so we have them recorded? IOW, they are not listed because the government hasn't told us which one's they are going to protect for us, YET. Not that I agree this is the way it should be, but that is the reality.
Government's primary role is to protect and guarantee individual liberty for The People. It recognizes that we all have rights that are 'endowed upon us by our creator'. The liberty that government grants and guarantees allow us to exercise our rights, and enacted laws set in place a framework where we can exercise our individual freedoms without infringing on others. Authoritarians abuse this system by presuming to protect individuals from themselves, which is counter to the idea. (Big Gulp bans, forced purchase of health insurance, substance prohibitions, corporate/individual bailouts, etc.)
I obviously agree with you. - - - Updated - - - This is the current situation simply because the government owns the people instead of the people owning the government.
Yes somewhere in the past 200 years they have forgotten that. They are our employees, we are not their subjects.
The government, or more to the point, government employees assume a lot. As long as they can get away with what they are doing, they are right.
This really doesn't originate from the founders of America. These are the thoughts of people like John Locke, David Hume, and Adam Smith.
All good and well, but you have to remember there is also natural, God given right, right to grab as much power as you can capable to. So the goal is to find a right balance between those rights.
