Religious Right leaders are excited that Rep. Paul Ryan, in accepting Mitt Romney's invitation to be his running mate, said that our rights come from nature and God, not from government.
I can be moved to tears by the ideals included in our founding documents. My wife and I sent an original printing of the Declaration of Independence on a 10-year road trip around the country to let Americans have the thrill of reading these words in our nation's birth certificate, and in their own home towns: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...."
Now, am I crazy to suspect that his "God not government" usage is less an homage to Thomas Jefferson or John Locke than it is a rhetorical boost for the right-wing project to claim a divine mandate for the Tea Party's radically restricted view of the role of government?
This wasn't the first time that our new Republican candidate for vice president used that formulation; several weeks ago he cited nature and God as the rationale for repealing health care reform too, criticizing the law's supporters for believing that health care was a government-granted right.
Other politicians and Religious Right leaders use the notion that our rights come from God to justify their opposition to legal equality for those who they believe displease God, particularly LGBT Americans -- the way some once argued that it was God's will or the natural order for certain people to be enslaved, or for women to subordinate their legal rights to their husbands. Or the way some people believe that wealth and success are signs of divine blessing (or simply of natural superiority à la Ayn Rand) so that we as a society shouldn't be too worried about those born into positions of want and restricted opportunity.
Some even argue that the Constitution was meant to create a government of, by and for Christians. They are demonstrably wrong. The authors of the Constitution explicitly considered and rejected proposals to insert Christianity into the Constitution, and they chose not to. The framers chose the more radical path of separating church and state and creating a country in which one's religious beliefs or lack thereof were no bar to citizenship or public office. Of course, on this as on many other issues, the reality is that in life and in law, at the nation's founding our society was far from the ideal. We struggled for the progress we have made and that struggle continues. So let's do celebrate the legacies from our founders, and at the same time maintain a healthy skepticism toward those who use the rhetoric of nature and God to deny the government's role in promoting the general welfare or securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
For the record, I'm a conservative. I wouldn't vote Republican unless I hated the USA and women.
The Tea Party exists to call for a return to the strictly limited government that was intended by our Founders. What this means is that NO LAWS could possibly be passed that benefit people directly with money, or those things that money represent, from the government.!
Semper fi
Either you get God out of your party and politics, or your party is going the way of the dinosaur.
Semper fi
Of the People....
By the People...
For the People
Please point out a Constitutional right we have lost that you do not agree with? We've actually GAINED rights... but I understand you must fear to live, like a shark must swim.
Natural law philosophy works equally well with or without God. A more accurate statement would be that our rights come from nature or God, as natural law philosophy is quite compatable with a Darwinian world view.
Semper fi
If you really think rights are given by God, try to explain why he allowed so many to die at the hands of Godless warlords, why God (The Judeo Christian one) is second best in the world he created... with Islam being the #1 religion?
Allow me to answer for you... there are no angels, there are no divine rights. We have basic human rights because they are enforced by MAN and GOVERNMENT. God has nothing to do with it. Divinely inspired perhaps... but certainly not divinely granted or protected.
Either you get God out your party, or your party will go the way of the dinosaur.
Anyone who believes in God knows that such a being would be to us as we are to a protozoa.
Semper fi
not one of them ever heard of "divine right of kings"
divine right of kings was a core christian believe for 100s of years.
yet today it is unknown among christians as they now believe our form of government is jesus favorite
Yeah that Tea Party is pretty radical. Just imagine, people who would get together to read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers! Ooooooh, Scary!
The Boston Tea Party was about the fact that taxes weren’t high enough on a corporation (East India Trading Co) because of their arrangement with the King. It's favored tax status was putting small, American operators out of business. The Boston Tea Party was a protest against monopolies and favored status for corporations.
The laugh is on you.
Not THE creator, as in a singular, specific deity, but an acknowledgement of any and all. Many of the founders weren't even Christian. They were deists. To corrupt their pure statesmanship to beget power for your own people and to throw down others is monstrous and very un-Christian.
My "creators" were known as "Mom" and "Dad."
So it's not surprising that even in our "modern-age" some of our leaders still cling to the idea that what they think and believe is a product of divine inspiration; that they are some how closer to god than the rest of us and that the people they lead are meant to obey without question. After all, it's absurd to disagree with god and his anointed spokespeople. God does not make mistakes.