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To: mnehrling
Where, for instance, did the idea of promoting democracy come from?

Here's a hint:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Seems to me that the argument could be made that Natural Law, God's gift of our human, "unalienable" rights gives us the responsibility to share that divine gift that our ancestors earned for us, with those who have not yet achieved it. Where much is given, much is required. From that perspective, would it not be the height of selfishness to do otherwise?

12 posted on 04/15/2008 1:24:49 PM PDT by Reaganesque
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To: Reaganesque
The counterargument to your point will inevitably be that it is the responsibility of other peoples to secure their own rights without our help.

And yet the Founders solicited the aid of France and the Netherlands to assist Americans in securing theirs.

13 posted on 04/15/2008 1:34:29 PM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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