Power to the People
Authoritarians conveniently ignore the moral limitations on government and have no compunction about violating people's rights when it fits their prejudices and doesn't gore their own oxen.
There is no right to enslave.
Not by individuals.
Not by local, state, or federal governments.
Not even a little bit.
Just as an individual’s right of free action does not include the “right” to commit crimes (that is, to violate the rights of others), so the right of a nation to determine its own form of government does not include the right to establish a slave society (that is, to legalize the enslavement of some men by others). There is no such thing as “the right to enslave.” A nation can do it, just as a man can become a criminal—but neither can do it by right.
…Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). Whether a slave society was conquered or chose to be enslaved, it can claim no national rights and no recognition of such “rights” by civilized countries—just as a mob of gangsters cannot demand a recognition of its “rights” and a legal equality with an industrial concern or a university, on the ground that the gangsters chose by unanimous vote to engage in that particular kind of group activity. (Emphases added.)
Ayn Rand, “Collectivized Rights,” The Virtue of Selfishness
A government has no legitimate power that exceeds that of individuals. Anything a government is permitted to do is first the province of the individual.
A government cannot do things denied to the individual. It most certainly cannot legitimately violate rights. Individuals, however, have the power to engage in (peaceful) actions denied to the government.
Discrimination, Freedom, and Rights
Anti-discrimination laws applied to private individuals and/or organizations violate freedom of contract and association. People have the right peaceably to discriminate against anyone for any reason, rational or not, absent prior contract.
Any power a government has is DELEGATED by its employers: individual citizens. Any such power belongs first and foremost to the INDIVIDUAL. There is no other source for a government’s power. Only individuals exist.
Moreover, individuals may delegate authority to a government ONLY for tasks arising from the context of protecting their rights and may not delegate power to a government to oversee and/or control any or all other aspects of life.
A government has NO authorization to supersede its mandate, that is, its enumerated powers: it can do only those tasks that its employers are not prepared or wanting to do themselves.
(This is the rationale many Founders had for not adding a Bill of Rights: such inclusion might imply to the less scrupulous that the government could do whatever it wanted if a behavior was not explicitly prohibited. The brain-dead of today make essentially that very argument.)
Just as a lawyer cannot arbitrarily decide what aspects of his employer’s life he will oversee in defiance of or regardless of the terms of employment nor dictate to his employer what that person must or must not do, neither can a proper government.
ANY local, state, or federal government powers are absolutely delimited by the only moral purpose for establishing ANY government: to protect the rights of the individual.
Any governmental actions that violate that foundational principle are automatically and de facto null and void.
No legitimate government has the spurious “right” to do whatever is not explicitly denied to it. That egregiously immoral and tyrannical idea stands reality on its head by evading the fact that ANY government may only do those things it is EXPLICITLY PERMITTED TO DO; that is, only those things that are DELEGATED TO IT and then only within the narrowly bound arena of protecting individual rights.
Colluding with a majority of citizens to violate the rights of the minority does not magically transform this evil lead into virtuous gold. Masking the destructive dross of such betrayal with the false god of “democracy” merely reveals the lying scum for what they are at the core of their being.
Any interpretation of government or of any part of the Constitution that does not assume freedom as the default position or that hides behind legalese to overlook or excuse or “justify” parts of the Constitution that contradict that presumption of liberty is unworthy of consideration and reveals a deep seated commitment to statism that deserves to be summarily dismissed.
Those sanctimonious and condescending false patriots who cower behind the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to let states and localities run roughshod over our rights are bullies, cowards, and thieves, notwithstanding any assertions of being self-proclaimed “absolutists” regarding, say, the Second Amendment.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
People have innumerable rights that are routinely disregarded by all levels of government. Simply because the Constitution does not mention a particular right does not mean that it does not exist. And a state’s “reserved” powers cannot properly override or conflict with those of its citizens. That is part-and-parcel of what a limited government means.
The Constitution doesn’t confer ANY rights to people. The rights to marriage, to eat, to sleep, to have sex, to work, to do much of anything are NOT in the Constitution. That doesn’t make those rights non-existent.
Abortion: Questions and Answers
Too many people make this observation: “A positive ‘right to abortion’ is nowhere in evidence in the Constitution”
Yes, states have jurisdiction to deal with matters of strictly local concern, but only in contexts that are any business of government, in the first place. They certainly do not have any right to intrude into any and all areas of life that are denied to the federal government. They have no delegated authority to violate my fundamental rights in any way, shape, or form. States do not have carte blanche to do 90+% of what they do. States “rights” do not exist: government entities have zero rights. All that those organizations possess are limited and delegated powers.
That is integral to what it means to have a republican form of government. And that applies all the way down to the bottom of the political hierarchy, to the lowliest city commission or body.
Why slimy hypocrites so desperately cling to preaching the anti-gospel of nearly unlimited power for states and localities is a subject for a different essay. Suffice it to say that, to paraphrase the old quote: what difference does it make if the tyrant stealing my freedom is halfway across town or halfway across the country?
The Founders knew the meaning of freedom and the nature of a good government. They would never have placed chains on the federal government and then handed a whip to the states and localities to undo all they created.
My body, my life, my choice.
No one has a right to force me to comply with his or her wishes as to what I do or not peacefully choose to do.
If you think you possess that magical “right,” well…you can just fuck right off.
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