December 19, 2009

Steve Pomper

Government cannot Bestow Rights; Government can only Recognize and Protect them.

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You know, folks always tell conservatives and libertarians that we must return civility to the political conversation. Funny; I can’t remember the last time I started a political conversation with a liberal or progressive, but they’ll sure start one with me. I was at a Christmas party a couple years ago and I mentioned something positive about President Bush about something fairly innocuous. The folks I was standing with looked at me as if I’d grown a second head.

 

“You like Bush?” The normally genial hostess said to me, looking like she and her fellow public school teachers had just gulped a mouthful of dirt.

 

I replied that I liked some things he’d done, and opposed other things. That apparently wasn’t good enough and I learned in the diatribe that followed that there wasn’t even one good thing about the man—ever!

 

I used to agree that civility was needed in political discussion, but I think the liberals are winning me over. Why should I give any leeway at all to those political opponents who want to take away my money and my rights. We’re talking about people, with regard to the current “Health Care Reform” bill(s), who have no qualms with tossing my ass in prison should I choose not to purchase health care “insurance.”

 

This seems to be the bottom line: If conservatives and libertarians get their way, liberty prevails and even the liberals are free to live their lives as they choose. If liberals and progressives get their way, liberty suffers and no one is free to live their lives as they choose.

 

This being the case, why in the world should I be civil to a person who would take away my property (money) and my liberty? Now, part of the pity is most ordinary liberals don’t look at it this way, and that’s more than sad. On the contrary, the leaders of the progressive movement know exactly what they’re doing. Their followers have deluded themselves into believing that human beings cannot make a correct decision for themselves and therefore the government must make it for them. They’ve even arrived at the illogical conclusion that government providing entitlements is some sort of “charity.”

 

Plain and simple, it’s not charity if it’s forced. Charity is a voluntary gesture from the heart, given from one person to another. I’m tired of liberals who accuse me of callousness because I don’t support universal health care. Health care being a product like any other product, I don’t believe in universal food distribution, or housing, or transportation, or televisions, or lawn mowers, or videogames, or etc.

 

Making my own peaceful decisions, such as purchasing health insurance, for myself is my natural right; the government providing me with health care is an entitlement paid for by redistributing someone else’s money to me—how is this a right? Government cannot bestow real rights, only the divine can do that. Government exists primarily to protect my natural rights to my life, my liberty, and my pursuit of happiness.

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