He sounded like the Americans I grew up with - and respected.
I think of America like the founders did - that we were a better free’er country than the rest of the world. That we would be self sufficient, and morality would come from the bottom up, not the top down. That because we were more of an independent breed of people (not lapdogs), we didn’t need to be told what to do. Our mistakes were our own responsibility, no one else’s. We were free to do as we wished as long as we didn’t hurt anyone else - that covered guns and other dangerous items that cowardly countries kept from their citizenry.
I posted this before as this is the traditional opinion of the rights of the American citizen. I think it sums up the basic right. To be left alone.
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[The] right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.
BRANDEIS, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE LOUIS, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 479 (1928)
The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.
DOUGLAS, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE WILLIAM O., Public Utilities Commission v. Pollack
The care of every man’s soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, October 1776
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Bill for Religious Freedom, 1779
Thanks for posting that-too bad that more people have never paid attention to histoey-there are lessons to be learned in history, but people have to pay attention.