Dem Assails Idea of Natural Rights [semi-satire]

This week, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) took issue with the American Declaration of Independence's assertion "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."

"I find the notion that human rights are granted by God to be extremely troubling," Kaine said at a Senate hearing. "The belief that some invisible God could be the source of a person's rights is what the Iranian government believes. The sparseness of the grant of only life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is miserly in comparison to the rights that governments can grant. It's no wonder that the early American era was said to be one of 'rugged individualism.' We are now in an era of mutual collectivism where government has granted the rights of guaranteed welfare, housing, education, health care and hundreds of other rights. Instead of thanking God, the people of America should be thanking those members of the government who have turned the country toward a brighter, more progressive future."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) observed "all the extra 'rights' being created by Democrats like Sen. Kaine impose costs on others. Someone else is taxed in order to fund the welfare, housing, and other goods and services he wants government to hand out. This is very much like the plantation culture of pre-Civil War America where black individuals were forced to provide food and housing for whites who held them as slaves. It took the deadliest war in our history to stamp out that injustice. The genius of America's Founders was to embed the great principle of individual freedom into our Declaration of Independence. The Democrats' plan to make people dependent on government will destroy that individual freedom."

Kaine tried to refute Cruz by insisting that "the vast majority of individuals aren't competent to run their own lives. They flounder under the sort of freedom Sen. Cruz would impose on them. They want the security that the welfare state gives them. The innovators that create wealth are harnessed for the good of all by Democrat policies. Common folks capable of holding down a job work for the innovators. Those incapable or unwilling to hold down a job are provided a minimum standard of living. It's the most humane solution attainable in our modern world. We shouldn't muck it up by allowing the excessive freedom that a rigid adherence to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness would force on society."

In related news, some bureaucrats in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) who were entrusted with the responsibility to assist victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks were fired after it was discovered that they were logging on to pornography websites during working hours. Sen. Kaine argued that "first of all, there's nothing wrong with pornography. Many psychiatrists see it as a useful outlet for pent-up sexual desires. Second, even if we were to wrongfully assume that pornography is bad, the presence of a couple of bad apples in the FEMA bureaucracy doesn't disprove my case for the welfare state."

Those incapable or unwilling to hold down a job are provided a minimum standard of living (with welfare). It's the most humane solution attainable in our modern world. We shouldn't muck it up by allowing the excessive freedom that a rigid adherence to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness would force on society.

Translation: Cain is saying it's good for the people to slay our freedoms so that the benevolent government can take care of us. Just like Hitler said. Just like Castro said. Just like Lenin said.

Will this American's faith is not in lying, broke, corrupt government. Nor is my faith in people trying to game the system. Cain himself included people "unwilling" to work. I've done charity volunteer work for two different churches and we had not just the authority, but the duty to not give groceries and clothes to people who pulled up in new Escalades wearing fancy clothes. The "helpful" government doesn't do that.

At my current church when people ask for help paying their utilities, we have them first do a brief budgeting course and even show us their bank transactions to help walk them through trimming their budget further. The government doesn't do that. (Admittedly it's been a while since I was part of that process. So I'm not sure if we still do that.)

The ones asking help have to show us that they trimmed their budget BEFORE the church gives them cash for the power bill. The government doesn't do that. We then direct them to one of our semester long financial small groups, which I still sometimes have the honor of leading. The government doesn't do that.

It makes me sick to think of all of the taxpayer money used to pay for "education" knowing that us volunteers do a better job of teaching life needed skills like managing money, saving, and even investing. If the group is young enough I talk some about career planning and doing things God's way with making babies (marriage, two-parent households). This happens in a church that's about 2/3rds black in a somewhat low income area. Every semester, someone in the group says, "I don't think you understand. Us blacks aren't taught to manage money like you whites are." Always the whites in the group say, "I wasn't taught it, either." We all laugh and it becomes a bonding moment where the blacks realize that the outcomes of the two races is more about life choices than about whatever lies the political class speaks. I and the other two leaders with me always commit to teaching it the best we can if they agree to teach it to their kids and their nephews and nieces. Which they do. We do it without the racial division that the so-called "education" establishment does. At my request, some of them come back to the group to help lead, even if just for an evening and just enough to say that his debts are paid off and his Roth IRA and Roth 401K is growing just like theirs can too if they live less lives of materialism and social status symbols and more lives of godly wisdom.

The government doesn't do that. The people of God do. The same "invisible" God that Cain mocks as saying isn't the source of our inalienable rights.

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