Posted on 01/19/2012 9:18:41 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I mean, really. How dare you peasants tell the government what to do? How dare you tell them to stay out of your lives? Santorum 2012!
(VIDEO AT LINK)
"One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a Libertarianish right.
They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues.
That is not how traditional conservatives view the world. There is no such society that I’m aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.”
- Rick Santorum
First off, the phrase “radical individualism” is something I expect to hear from a Saudi imam. Hell, I wouldn’t be too surprised to hear it from leftists in this country. When I hear it from a Republican candidate for president, I sit blinking for a couple of minutes and then curl up in a ball under my desk, crying softly.
Secondly, I have to wonder: is Santorum insane, or even more out of touch with his base than any of the other candidates? This guy has the balls to whine about people wanting the government to leave them alone? Um, Ricky, I’m pretty sure the top issue for most conservatives is government overreach. There’s this thing called ObamaCare. Heard of it?
However, the true Emmy award winner of this piece is when he disputes the notion that “government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low”. You’re absolutely right, bud. I hope you get up on a podium tonight and deliver, in that notoriously whiny timbre of yours, admonishment to all those non-traditional conservatives who won’t shut up about lower taxes and less regulation. See how that flies in South Carolina. Rick Santorum is a statist theocrat. I’ve said it before, and been challenged on it. I consider this quote to be a follow up to this endlessly disturbing piece from nine years ago. Rick Santorum’s agenda involves using government power to enforce his morality on the American people, based not on political or constitutional ideals, but on his religious views. He is as far removed from the Tea Party, and the concept of small-government conservatism, as Barack Obama.
But lucky us! We can also choose from a socialist who provided the blueprint for ObamaCare, a serial cheater and liar with an ego the size of Neptune, or an isolationist crank who wouldn’t have stopped the Holocaust if it were occurring in present day. Johnnie Walker is my co-pilot.
Answer the question, please.
You ask me questions, I expect you to answer mine.
But what we have today is astoundingly and stupidly large.
I won't live long enough to read all the new laws that are passed, much less the old ones I don't know about.
God gave us 10. I can quote most of them.
Compare and contrast.
/johnny
Santorum is even higher horsey than Gingrich or Perry.
And where did the commerce clause ever get to the point where the Federal government could step in where locales could formerly have their own rules? This is a constitutional abortion, never meant by the founding fathers, and we are not invited to carry on this abortion.
Rick mentioned it AGAIN in the debate tonight that abortion must be decided at the Federal level and insinuated others must as well (he did not specify which).
Roe v Wade is very bad law. It Federalized the lawful murder of the unborn.
That said, and as Paul pointed out in the debate tonight (no, I am not a Paul-bot...to preempt your constant resort to the ad hominem) there is no federal law against after-birth murder...or other violent offenses. The Constitution SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDES such law under the 10th Amendment.
Of course, you don't agree. You are another statist like Santorum that would have Federal Laws against all sorts of corrupt behaviors. I'm sure, if given the chance, you would insist your legislator not bother with a Constitutional Amendment and just go ahead and pass, then enforce, the Volstead Act.
Like all statists, you do not respect the Constitution.
In that culture each person gets to decide whether he or she wants to respect religion for him-/herself.
Religion is a personal matter, not one the government should have any say in. Religion IS an individual matter, no matter how you or anyone else decides to spin that simple reality.
I have no idea why this isn't blazingly obvious to anyone who understands and respects what this country is and always has been.
He could easily vindicate himself by clarifying things, for example that the 2nd amendment is only tangential to hunters.
More history on this country and the right to be left alone - it is one of the foundational ideas. Terrible public schools have taught us that we are slave to the state, but that was not the founder’s intention.
RIGHTS OF MAN
TO BE LEFT ALONE (quotes)
Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.
AQUINAS, ST. THOMAS, Summa Theologica
[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
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
LEWIS, C.S.
I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men’s rights.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM
The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others... Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
MILL, JOHN STUART, On Liberty, Chapter 1
[Extending] the bounds of what may be called moral police, until it encroaches on the most unquestionably legitimate liberty of the individual, is one of the most universal of all human propensities.
MILL, JOHN STUART, On Liberty, Chapter 4
America wasn’t founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well please.
O’ROURKE, P.J.
One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle.
OTIS, JAMES, Against the Writs of Assistance, Boston, 1761, quoted in Orators of America by Guy Carleton Lee (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900)
It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself.
PERCELL, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CASEY
Call it tolerance, call it respect: it is the mark of a free society that individuals are left free to pursue their own values, however wise or foolish, however enlightened or benighted, however pleasing or offensive to others.
PILON, ROGER, The Right to Do Wrong
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
RAND, AYN, The Fountainhead
[H]ow many tobacco smokers resort to theft and prostitution in order to support their habit? Yet clinical studies have shown that tobacco is more habit forming than heroin.
REDFORD, JAMES, Government Causes the Crime, Part I
Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffers, not the state.
TWAIN, MARK, Quoted in Mark Twain Speaking, University of Iowa Press, 1976:384-8
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint; the more restraint on others to keep off from us, the more liberty we have.
WEBSTER, DANIEL, Speech at the Charleston Bar Dinner, May 10, 1847
Why doesn’t everybody leave everybody else the hell alone?
DURANTE, JIMMY
You have it perfectly upside down. The Constitution doesn't say that you have the right to breath.
The Constitution is a LIMIT on federal government. The Constitution does not give rights, it restricts government.
I don't smoke pot, but I do rake the alleged conservatives over the coals for getting the Constitution upside down.
/john
States could and did have “official churches” in the early years, but even those could not force anybody to go.
In tying up the loose ends of a messy civil rebellion, Abraham Lincoln was responsible, wittingly or not, for a hugely unprecedented concentration of Federal power.
“You can’t be responsible for what you don’t control.”
Newsflash, no one has full control over themselves and their own actions. People make mistakes. You are held responsible even if you lose control. Losing control is not an excuse for bad behaviour, unless you believe that getting drunk is a pass.
“I strongly disagree with you. Personal autonomy is REQUIRED for truly righteous behavior.”
No, it’s not. See, you cannot have God in your life, if you believe that you rule yourself. Personal autonomy is anathema to any sort of Faith - where you give yourself over to God.
The Founders were religious men. So was America. Your argument would consign religion to a closet, that one could simply pick it up when you leave the temple, and put it away.
It’s also the argument that Kennedy used to explain away his faith - that his faith was not the guiding influence on his life and his actions.
If that’s what you believe that America is about - you are grossly mistaken. Again, America has never espoused that ideology. America has always argued that the individual and the community must be in balance with one another.
Communism, where the individual is expunged is no less wrong than Anarchism, where the community is expunged. Both are wrong.
“God gave us our will. Who is the government, or you, to try to restrain God’s gift?”
And if God gave you your will, then you are not your own, and personal autonomy is a lie. You belong to Him. Not yourself. You do not rule you, God does.
Personal responsibility enforced by the government is no such thing.
Of course American culture has ALWAYS been about personal autonomy or 'self rule'. Ever hear of "the right to life, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness"?
A definition of liberty from online: "the freedom to think or act without being constrained by necessity or force."
When government is making someone live up to his/her obligations it is as a means of protecting the rights of the one on the receiving end of those obligations--it is not in the position to force anyone to do something because Rick Santorum thinks they're too self-absorbed.
I briefly supported Santorum, but now he's as off-the-wall and unqualified as Obama or Paul.
BenKenobi refuses to acknowledge the meaning or intent of the 10th Amendment.
Exactly right.
I can govern myself.
Defend our borders, ensure a sound monetary system, other than that, get the hell out of my life and stay out.
Yes!
Religious faith is a choice. If you don't make that choice, you aren't there. God has given man the freedom to come to Him, to choose to live a good life, to embrace the Love of God, and ultimately, to seek to be one with Him--or not.
You can legislate all you want, but the choice is up to the individual.
One who will live a 'Godly' life will do so without laws to force them to, and one who will not, will not despite any laws, be they secular or sacred.
That wasn’t his argument.
He was arguing that you have a constitutional right to smoke pot, just like you have a constitutional right to bear arms.
This is wrong.
“The Constitution doesn’t say that you have the right to breathe.”
The Constitution has consistantly upheld the right of the community to regulate the buying and selling of alcohol, among other things. There has never existed a constitutional right to smoke pot, or use controlled substances.
“The Constitution is a LIMIT on federal government.”
And one of the things that the constitution provides to the federal government is the right to regulate the transit of goods across the border.
“The Constitution does not give rights, it restricts government.”
Then show me where it says that you have the constitutional right to smoke pot. It’s not there.
“I don’t smoke pot, but I do rake the alleged conservatives over the coals for getting the Constitution upside down.”
The 2nd amendment explicitly affirms the right to bear arms. You need to read the 21st amendment again.
The 21st says that communities have the right to ban the sale of alcohol and to prohibit it’s traffic. So there does not exist the right to buy and sell controlled substances within the American constitution.
Other nations are different, but I’m talking about America here. If you want this to be the case, then you need to repeal the 21st Amendment.
Bullcrap. Look at Franklin, who screwed anything with a heartbeat, or Jefferson, who was a Deist.
I do have control of my actions.
God will decide in the end, but I get to choose. And that, God gave me.
And if 10 basic rules were good enough for Him, they should be good enough for Congress.
100,000 pages+ of laws?
That's true evil, and the confounding influence of Satan.
/johnny
Agreed?
Classic do-gooder and enemy of Constitutional Liberty.
“Religious faith is a choice. If you don’t make that choice, you aren’t there.”
Auto - nomos - Self rule.
Christianity teaches that you must give yourself over to Christ. You must sacrifice your autonomy in order to become one with Him.
“God has given man the freedom to come to Him, to choose to live a good life, to embrace the Love of God, and ultimately, to seek to be one with Him—or not.”
Yes, but here’s the problem. Someone who has given their life up to Christ has denied their autonomy. Ergo, they are acting contrary to what is perceived, to be the highest good, their own self rule.
Anyone who believes that autonomy is the principle good, cannot be a Christian. This is what Santorum is arguing here - America has never upheld the principle that individual autonomy is the principle good.
“You can legislate all you want, but the choice is up to the individual.”
Again, there is no compulsion to respect religion in a culture which believes that autonomy is the primary goal. You can only respect religion - if and only if - there is understanding of a world beyond that of the self.
“One who will live a ‘Godly’ life will do so without laws to force them to, and one who will not, will not despite any laws, be they secular or sacred.”
This is not about forcing anyone to do anything, but this is about affirming the principle that there exists something beyond self.
That I’m even here arguing this principle, indicates to me just how far things have slid.
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