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Absolutism Redux (Be very afraid - Cass Sunstein)
NationalReviewOnline ^ | December 13, 2004 | Tom G. Palmer

Posted on 09/10/2009 3:49:07 PM PDT by khnyny

You owe your life — and everything else — to the sovereign. The rights of subjects are not natural rights, but merely grants from the sovereign. There is no right even to complain about the actions of the sovereign, except insofar as the sovereign allows the subject to complain. These are the principles of unlimited, arbitrary, and absolute power, the principles of such rulers as Louis XIV. Intellectuals have assiduously promoted them; think of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes.

A new intellectual champion of absolutism has now emerged. Mild-mannered University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein has been advancing the radical notion that all rights — including rights usually held to be "against" the state, such as the right to freedom of speech and the right not to be arbitrarily imprisoned or tortured — are grants from the state. In a book co-authored with Stephen Holmes, The Cost of Rights, he argued that "all legal rights are, or aspire to be, welfare rights," that is, positive grants from the state. There is no difference in kind between the right not to be tortured and the right to taxpayer-subsidized dental care.

In his new book, The Second Bill of Rights, Sunstein seeks to give constitutional status to welfare rights. The title comes from Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union address, in which he proclaimed that "necessitous men are not free men" and proposed a "second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all." Among the rights FDR proposed were the rights to "a useful and remunerative job," "a decent home," "adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health," "adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment," and "a good education."

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1944; absolutism; agenda; bho44; bhoczars; casssunstein; domesticenemies; enemiesdomestic; evil; fdr; godless; inalienablerights; mullahobama; obama; obamastaffers; omg; power; privileges; propertyrights; radicalleft; rights; roosevelt; secondbillofrights; sunstein; uofchicago; welfare
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Dangerous guy.
1 posted on 09/10/2009 3:49:08 PM PDT by khnyny
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To: khnyny

Not only no, but HELL NO!


2 posted on 09/10/2009 3:51:58 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: khnyny

A favorite quote of mine:
“The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is mo more a free man than a dog is.” - G.K. Chesterton


3 posted on 09/10/2009 3:52:38 PM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: khnyny

What a wonderful choice the President has made. One of the most brilliant men in the world is going to save us all and create a new system whereby we will live in a utopia never seen before on the face of the earth.

Oh JOY!!!

/S/

IMHO


4 posted on 09/10/2009 3:56:49 PM PDT by ripley
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To: khnyny
Thomas Jefferson's idea of “unalienable rights” is so old school. In addition, his idea of a Creator endowing us with those rights is positively medieval!

Thank goodness we have Cass to enlighten us.

/sarc

5 posted on 09/10/2009 3:57:20 PM PDT by Deo volente (You can take the thug out of Chicago, but you can't.....well, you know the rest.)
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To: RobRoy
"In what sense is the money in our pockets and bank accounts fully ‘ours’? Did we earn it by our own autonomous efforts? Could we have inherited it without the assistance of probate courts? Do we save it without the support of bank regulators? Could we spend it if there were no public officials to coordinate the efforts and pool the resources of the community in which we live?... Without taxes there would be no liberty. Without taxes there would be no property. Without taxes, few of us would have any assets worth defending. [It is] a dim fiction that some people enjoy and exercise their rights without placing any burden whatsoever on the public… There is no liberty without dependency."

- Cass Sunstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Sunstein

6 posted on 09/10/2009 4:02:10 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Which was the lie, 0bummer: 47 or 30 million uninsured?)
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To: khnyny

He specifically also thinks that the internet is dangerous because it permits only SIMILAR people to exchange w/one another, ergo democracy is ILL SERVED.

He introduces in one of his books the idea of “Cascading threshold” —that’s where people (by hanging out with similar people) see some unsupported (or even ridiculous) idea (like low taxes encourages prosperity) sooo often that they simply reflexively believe it.

He also once called himself something like, a “choice facilitator” —kinda like when your mother told you you’d eat broccoli....or BROCCOLI.

See? Your meal choices were transformed from confusing (ice cream, PB&J) to crystal clear.


7 posted on 09/10/2009 4:11:09 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Uncle Miltie

The pedigree of this moral monster’s ideas is a guarantee of the gulag, the mass grave and the gallows.

That’s where we’re headed unless we fight and win the next American Civil War.


8 posted on 09/10/2009 4:20:50 PM PDT by Noumenon (Work that AQT - turn ammunition into skill. No tyrant can maintain a 300 yard perimeter forever.)
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To: RobRoy
Quotes of Cass Sunstein:

“Why should we be governed by people long dead? ... In any case, the group that ratified the Constitution included just a small subset of the society; it excluded all women, the vast majority of African Americans, many of those without property, and numerous others who were not permitted to vote.”  Cass Sunstein quote

“As a matter of history, the Fourteenth Amendment was not understood to ban segregation on the basis of race.”  Cass Sunstein quote

“The impeachment provision is for truly egregious wrongdoing, and we shouldn't repeat the unconstitutional impeachment of President Clinton.”  Cass Sunstein quote

“If you can kill them, why can't you spy on them?”  Cass Sunstein quote

9 posted on 09/10/2009 4:25:41 PM PDT by MamaDearest
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To: Uncle Miltie

That is just f***ing SICK! No liberty without dependency???


10 posted on 09/10/2009 4:49:56 PM PDT by Clock King (There's no way to fix D.C.)
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To: Deo volente

Natural or Unalienable rights were not Jefferson’s idea. We can especially thank John Locke and Saint Thomas Aquinas.

BUT, Jefferson and the other founders and framers were the first to put the theory into practice. If not miracles, our Declaration and Constitution were close.


11 posted on 09/10/2009 4:56:19 PM PDT by Jacquerie (It is only in the context of Natural Law that the Declaration and Constitution form a coherent whole)
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To: Clock King
What should be the First Question to any nominee to any Federal Office:

"Where do Rights come from?"

If they can't get that one correct, then they can't protect and defend the Constitution as required by their oath of office.

Cass Sunstein FAILS.

12 posted on 09/10/2009 4:58:34 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Which was the lie, 0bummer: 47 or 30 million uninsured?)
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To: Uncle Miltie
There is no liberty without dependency."

There is no freedom without government slavery? WT....???

Washington needs an overhaul - and fast!

13 posted on 09/10/2009 7:38:45 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: Uncle Miltie
Could we spend it if there were no public officials to coordinate the efforts and pool the resources of the community in which we live?...

Yes. We could. It's what our founding father tried to give us. Later, the politicians got power hungry and ruined it for everyone.

14 posted on 09/10/2009 7:41:33 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: khnyny

Is Cass short for Cassius? That would be fitting: named after a Roman traitor, and a traitor to his own species.


15 posted on 09/10/2009 7:48:06 PM PDT by rfp1234
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To: khnyny
The illogical twists and turns make one think of a medieval theologian counting devils on the head of a pin.


16 posted on 09/10/2009 7:52:52 PM PDT by magooey (The Mandate of Heaven resides in the hearts of men)
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To: Uncle Miltie
"There is no liberty without dependency."

BZZZZZZ!

Out-of-context alert!

Let's see the WHOLE thing, shall we?


War is peace
Freedom is slavery
There is no liberty without dependency

There, I fixed it.
17 posted on 09/10/2009 8:02:56 PM PDT by Don Joe ([expletive deleted])
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To: Don Joe
Thank you very much.

Reminds me of my previous tagline:

0bummer uses Orwell's "1984" as a "How To" guide.

18 posted on 09/10/2009 9:07:36 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Which was the lie, 0bummer: 47 or 30 million uninsured?)
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To: Clock King
No liberty without dependency???

Normally, when someone says something as Orwellian as that, they're being sarcastic/satirical.

Not in this case.

19 posted on 09/11/2009 4:30:23 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: khnyny

Today, concerns are that he is being prepped by the left for the Supreme Court


20 posted on 09/15/2009 5:49:15 PM PDT by givemELL (Does Taiwan Meet the Criteria to Qualify as an "Overseas Territory of the United States"? by Richar)
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