Explore free speech and its implications in light of Charlie Kirk’s tragic murder.
Let’s start with some basics: Your rights do not come from the government. Our founders recognized this when they signed off on the Declaration of Independence, which said in part: “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—.”
In other words, those rights are yours even in the absence of the government. Indeed, the entire Constitution is written with the idea that the government needs to be limited in power and scope to protect those rights. Its signatories understood that, in the absence of that clear prohibition enshrined in the constitution, the government would be restricting those rights before the ink of their signatures was dry.
Tim Kaine, the other day, flew in the face of that basic principle. He believes that rights should be derived from laws and government rather than being bestowed by a Creator, which contradicts a core principle of the Declaration of Independence. Ted Cruz, in response, took him to school. It amazes me that someone like Kane, who swore an oath of office to uphold the most sacred document of our republic, would hold such a grossly ignorant view of it.
Alas, Kaine is not alone in not understanding the basic functions of our Constitution.
The Constitution was written as a limit on government, not the people. Just now, we are seeing a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as society reacts to the way over the line rhetoric from the left as regards the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. The people making these horrifying comments are now complaining about society’s reactions to those comments, in part suggesting that their First Amendment rights are being violated.
