“Show me in the Constitution where it says we have a right to…”
December 16, 2006
Ed Brayton has a post up on Dispatches that answers the common anti-freedom refrain: The 9th Amendment means what it says.
Short version: “Show me in the constitution where it says we don’t have a right to…”
An enlightening exploration of the presumption of liberty as it applies to state’s rights, personal freedoms, the differences between them and the limitations of each.
I hate these questions. There’s a profound ignorance today as to what the political philosophy was that the constitution was founded on, and yet people always end up looking at me like I’m some sort of freak when I give them a crash course in classic liberalism.
I wonder if people would be quicker to abandon their liberty and freedom rhetoric if they realized it used to stand against most of what they believe in.