“If they come from man, they are not rights at all.”
Where did you get that idea?
For starters, the statements of rights given by God come from the Declaration of Independence. While it is a founding document, it is not a document proscribing any law. The Constitution is the document that specifies our form of government, how the government will run, and the specifics of our laws. The use of the words of the DoI preamble as if they were the law or had some force of law is ridiculous and arguing the premise that our rights come directly from God is a waste of time. Our rights and our laws come from the Constitution which was framed and agreed to by men, regardless of their individual beliefs of where the rights come from.
The Constitution was written and agreed to by the founding states based on the particular beliefs of the framers, but it does not specify that these laws are given to us specifically by God. Men did indeed create our government and laws and the states specifically adopted that Constitution as the basis of governing the union of states.
They are from man and they are rights agreed to and upheld by all of the states in the union. Where the framers considered these rights to have come from is not an issue but what is at issue is the strict enforcement and adherence to the laws and rights laid out in the Constitution.
There are specific ways to alter the laws and rights specified in the Constitution and by bypassing these procedures or ignoring them some men have decided to try to get away with throwing the parts of the Constitution they don’t like away. This is the real issue at hand. I doubt, despite hope, that God will step in and hand us back our Constitutional rights once they are lost.
Our rights come from the framers and they left them to us to protect and defend. Unfortunately, too many today no longer want to take any risk to maintain or restore that Constitution and take down those who would impose tyranny.
Absolute, 100% undiluted bullshit.
The Constitution is written from a standpoint of our rights already being in existence. It also clearly states that the new federal government is not empowered to violate/infringe on certain of those rights.
Nowhere in the document does it claim to be the SOURCE of those rights.
“Our rights come from the framers and they left them to us to protect and defend.”
These rights were articulated by the framers, they didn’t come from them. That’s why, I presume, they used the words “endowed by their Creator”. They didn’t say “endowed by us most wise men”. If “rights” were granted by men, they would be no more than a matter of taste, and they could be made non-existent by men. That is to say, they would not be inherent, not truly rights at all. They would be, as I said, arbitrary privileges. You want free speech? Well, I want free ice cream.
Our rights are a phenomenon of our creation, because we were created with purpose and free will. They can be frustrated by men (He gave them free will), but they cannot be taken away. We protect and defend them because they are, inherently, ours.
On the contrary, it proscribes--clearly interdicts--the legal authority of laws that infringe on the life, liberty & pursuit of happiness of any specific people; making it the right of that people--once their patience is exhausted--to act as the Founders. That is the whole justification for rising up and reconstituting a Government--something, by the way, actually done in England in 1215, 800 years ago, this year, also.
+1 and well done, sir.
Really?
RJS you need to get over to the Hillsdale College site and sign up for the course on the Constitution. Your argument is false. Educate yourself.
You’re absolutely right!
People need to understand that the Declaration of Independence is exactly what the title says: it’s a notice to show how we’re now independent from England.
The Republic was created later in the Constitution...YEARS later. After the Articles of Confederation and three Continental Congresses.
So Cuomo was right and wrong. I suspect he was trying to be a jerk though.