Rights

I’m having a really hard time making sense of some of the things I’ve heard and seen this week. So, the Democrats won big time. The American people have short memories and “gimme right now” lifestyles. Violent crime is down across the country. Inflation is low, even though prices haven’t come down nearly as much as we’d hoped. Median incomes are up, unemployment is low, and American production is booming. The border is sealed, and illegal crossings have all but stopped. But gas is still expensive because of the conflict with Iran, and I think those prices hoisted the Dems to victory. Of course, the Republicans did very little to help themselves over the past two years. Congratulations, nevertheless.

That should be enough—but it isn’t, and it never will be. They won. We ought to be able to keep what’s right and build on it. But some of what I’ve heard this week is downright evil, and it tells me they won’t be content with winning. They want to punish this administration, tear apart the fabric of our republic, and start over from scratch. It’s insane.

I have a hard time understanding how enforcing the law became a violation of civil rights.

I have a hard time seeing the United States as a dogmatic and oppressive regime when tens of thousands of people from all over the world risk everything to get here—legally or illegally.

I can’t fathom why any American would say we deserved 9/11.

I can’t comprehend why any American would declare they want to wipe their dirty hands on Old Glory, or why they’d hoist another country’s flag to celebrate a victory here at home.

I can’t stomach seeing people celebrate the horrific death of a faith leader who never espoused hate.

I can’t tolerate seeing people make a martyr of a child killer or hail a violent drug addict and rapist as a hero.

I won’t stand for indoctrinating our children to believe that entrepreneurship and profit are evil. Or that race alone makes some people privileged and deserving of punishment and others so disadvantaged that they must be artificially elevated. Or that benefits should come without merit and entitlements without sacrifice. Or that we must indulge someone else’s delusion even when it flies in the face of the truth.

On Tuesday, Americans from coast to coast elected candidates who said or did the very things I’ve just described. I’ve criticized Trump plenty. I said months ago that his mouth would cost Republicans the midterms, and I’ve pointed to several examples since. But I can’t think of a single stupid thing Trump has said or done that compares in kind with any of what I’ve described. Nothing! Nothing ever!

This derangement has more than half the country celebrating horrific, despicable things over one historically uncouth man. It cost me a very dear friend, a man I adored and respected and thought would see things more rationally. On September 10, I criticized Trump for remarks I thought were unnecessary and fiscally irrational. I said again that comments like those would likely cost us the midterms. Then I asked everyone to set aside their differences for the night and remember how the world changed on September 11—all the lives lost and all the families who suffered. My Canadian friend left a disparaging comment about our political system and our “leaders,” as he put it. He singled out Trump for treating Canada like an enemy. Then, right on the heels of that first comment, he left a second, a caring one. He called us “brothers in mourning.”

I hid my friend’s first comment, liked his second, and sent him a private message. I told him I’d hidden the comment because I wanted the post to be about remembering September 11. I told him I was sorry the trade dispute had offended him. As I saw it, it was politics. Both countries had good reason to be dissatisfied with the trade agreement and with each other’s leaders. I figured we’d work it out. He told me we couldn’t be friends if I thought Trump’s “war on Canada” was okay. I tried to tell him I’d always thought he was more rational than that. And wasn’t he the one who’d always told me to put faith before flag? “Christ is in control,” he used to tell me. “Be not worried…” He never got my reply. He’d already blocked me.

This time it’s different, and I’m worried. This is a different kind of two-term president. This is a different kind of opposition party. This is a different kind of voter. I won’t wax poetic about threats to our democracy. However, I think there’s a real danger to our Constitution and the Republic. Before the election, the Dems kept telling us our democracy was at stake and that our freedoms and rights were eroding under Trump. How? And how would the DSA’s proposals to end private property, abolish the Senate, and stack the Supreme Court protect those rights and freedoms? Either they don’t understand what a right is, or they understand it perfectly well and count on us not to. Of one thing I’m certain. Stealing from the rich to give free healthcare to every American—scratch that, to anyone in America at any given time—is no right at all.

A right must be endowed and inalienable. It cannot depend on someone else sacrificing their time, principles, or treasure. Rights cannot collide with or interfere with one another. They are independent and sacrosanct.

One has the right to pursue a higher education. That right carries no entitlement to a free education. Becoming a doctor takes eight years or more and can cost nearly half a million dollars. Educators and administrators deserve to be paid. Classrooms and labs need equipment and upkeep. A doctor can spend decades paying off that education. Patients have the right to pursue affordable healthcare. That right doesn’t entitle them to free treatment. Doctors have bills to pay. Clinics need upkeep and equipment. The companies that make that equipment pay for materials, maintain their own facilities, and pay workers who have families to feed, homes to maintain, cars to get them to work, and children to send to school. And the cycle continues.

Who is made to sacrifice so the patient can have free healthcare? The educator, the administrator, the maintenance worker, the student, the doctor, the corporate manager, the worker, the supplier, the logistics specialist, the state employee, the soldier, the contractor? Any one of them could be the next patient. Who pays then? How is the burden divided among the others? It’s a self-licking ice cream cone, and no one gets to enjoy the flavor. That is not a right.

Forcing someone to set aside their principles—and often to sacrifice their safety and treasure—for another person’s peace of mind is not a right. That is an exception.

One has the right to pursue homeownership. That right carries no entitlement to a home from the government. Someone still has to pay for it.

One has the right to seek employment and earn a living. That right places no obligation on the government to give everyone a job. Someone still has to pay the wages.

At every level of government, taxpayers shoulder the cost of public programs. The top 1 percent of earners nationwide pay at least 40 percent of federal individual income taxes. That figure covers one kind of tax. People also pay property, sales, and payroll taxes. If higher taxes or a loss of market share shrink the income that can be taxed, there’s less to draw from down the road. That’s another self-licking ice cream cone, and sooner or later it runs dry.

The greatest danger I see in these new politicians and the ilk who elected them is their willingness to stamp “RIGHT” on anything they want and expect some mysterious benefactor to bankroll it. There is no mysterious benefactor. And the more things they call rights, the harder it becomes to dislodge the false doctrine that everything is a right. I fear it will take a major catalyst to right these wrongs.