"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
What separates the right and the left , broadly defined (and perhaps more clearly on the internet), in America is which of those two sentences gets the emphasis.
There are certainly extreme positions, positions which suggest that one end of the spectrum completely trumps the other, positions of much heat and, alas, unworkable or unjust solutions to the issues which plague us. There are certainly petty despots of either stripe who tarnish these golden phrases for ignoble ends, attempting to twist their candid reasoning, and oppressing the human heart. Most of us, however, muddle along between them, insecure in our devotions, oscillating back and forth as the dangers of the moment compel.
I would argue that these sentences cannot be and should not be alienated from one another, nor extracted from their humble context--which is each other. You can--and in fact do--have all those rights with which your simple humanity endows you, whether a government exists or whether a government grants you the opportunity to exercise them. To be fully able to exercise your rights, however, you need a government. But not just any government. You need a government derived from the consent of the governed, a government that will support, of all absurd things, its citizens' liberty, a government of, by, and for the people.
There is a "Party of Freedom" which, despite sometimes allowing our allegiance to be swayed toward other, additional concerns, has always embraced the paradox between rights and the authority to secure them. Too often, and too easily, we can allow ourselves to be distracted by our putative allies, those who insist that only the complete triumph of the one can guarantee the other. No matter what banner in the current struggle we nominally declare our own, we must remember to fight always for human dignity, to never forget what we owe those who fought before us, and to pass our love of freedom--and its difficult history--on to the next generation.
Posted by Martial