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Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.  - Plato


Constitutional  "Rights"

The United States Constitution does not exist to grant you rights; those are inherent within you. Rather, it exists to frame a limited government so that those natural rights can be exercised freely.

The right to keep and bear arms is such a right, yet the White House website states, "The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms." The use of the word  'gives' instead of  'protects'  is a
subtle convolution on the Second Amendment that dictatorially implies that the government grants the right as a gift; one it could take away. Contrarily,  the Second Amendment's text recognizes the right as pre-existent, declaring only that it  shall not be infringed. Like other freedoms including those in the Bill of Rights, that right was already there. It protects a right granted us by our Creator, as described in the nation's charter:

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.   - The Declaration of Independence

Those unalienable rights are a small list of countless others. How any managed inclusion in the Constitution is historically recounted:

Both James Madison and Alexander Hamilton expressed grave reservations about Thomas Jefferson's, George Mason's and others insistence that the Constitution be amended by the Bill of Rights. It wasn't because they had little concern with liberty guarantees. Quite to the contrary they were concerned about the loss of liberties.

Alexander Hamilton expressed his concerns in Federalist Paper No. 84, "[B]ills of rights . . . are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous." Hamilton asks, "For why declare that things shall not be done [by Congress] which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given [to Congress] by which restrictions may be imposed?" Hamilton's argument was that Congress can only do what the Constitution specifically gives it authority to do. Powers not granted belong to the people and the states.

Alexander Hamilton added that a Bill of Rights would "contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more [powers] than were granted. . . . [it] would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power."

To mollify Alexander Hamilton's fears about how a Bill of Rights might be used as a pretext to infringe on human rights, the Framers added the Ninth Amendment. The Ninth Amendment reads: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Boiled down to its basics, the Ninth Amendment says it's impossible to list all of our God-given or natural rights. Just because a right is not listed doesn't mean it can be infringed upon or disparaged by the U.S. Congress.   - Walter E. Williams, Jun 2000

What seems a broad view of liberty by today's standard is nothing of the sort. The Founders recognized the distinction between liberty and license. In other words, liberty does not include the license to abuse the rights of others. "Individual freedom" is always limited by a social construct that defines it: free speech is "free" so long as it doesn't create a victim. The same goes for the Second Amendment and the countless other rights not addressed in the Constitution.

There is no need for Congress to impose restrictions on freedoms already restricted perfectly to protect the rights of others. Yet, bi-partisan efforts continue to transition this nation from the Republic, constitutionally mandated to protect "rights," into a corporate democracy that encroaches on them.

Probity would assert that 'the protection of rights' is the only legitimate and lawful role of the Federal government; anything else is corruption. For citizens of a free state, there is a tipping point where the corruption becomes so great that illegitimate government coercion can no longer force illegitimate support.

- Galt


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