Florida AG Candidate: Health Care ‘Should Be’ a Right

Nestled in an obscure Florida Attorney General candidates' debate Friday was a fundamental disagreement over the nature of rights. The specific issue at hand was whether health care is a right.

Notably, one Democratic candidate, Dan Gelber, asserted the following on the matter:

Health care should be a right, not a privilege.

Note the verb "should be." Gelber didn't claim it "was" a right. Such phrasing seems to deny that rights are fundamental to all individuals (e.g.; "endowed by their Creator") and not determined by the whims of popular opinion or government decree. He is suggesting, at least in his wording, that rights become rights after being acknowledged by government.

Government creation of rights is anathema to the framers' understanding of rights. Rights, to them, were innate to being human. They were only to be protected by government, not dependent on government for their existence.

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Local Congressional Candidate Can't Name Bill of Rights

Our YAL chapter at Ole Miss has been in our student union everyday for the last few weeks playing, "Name the First Ten Amendments," with our student population. We have had some interesting results thus far.

Obviously, only a very small amount of students have been able to name all ten. However, we decided it would be more productive if we extended our challenge to positions of authority. We asked a local police officer what the first ten amendments were... he couldn't name a single one (we filmed his response and will have it posted soon). We even asked our Dean of Students... he couldn't name all ten, but he did admit to being shamed and graciously took a pocket constitution for careful study. 

But there has been no greater surprise thus far than what came from a candidate for Mississippi's first congressional district. Our group approached Angela McGlowan and, since she was campaigning for Congress, decided to test her knowledge of the Bill of Rights. Not only did she refuse to attempt to name the first ten amendments, she asked the police to escort the students away from her. She then began insulting YAL members, calling YAL vice president John Heniken a, "dick." The police, fortunately, were more concerned with calming the congressional candidate down than forcing the students to leave. To read a more in depth article on this absurd encounter, go here. 

Did you know there's a preamble to the Bill of Rights?

Today is Bill of Rights Day.  Unfortunately, it's a holiday created by none other than FDR, who hardly held much respect for the document (especially Amendments 9 and 10).  And this link from LewRockwell.com makes the case that there isn't any room for celebration today at all:

The Bill of Rights should be mourned, not celebrated. It is defunct. Intended as the bulwark of the right of decentralized self-government, it now serves mainly as an excuse for the opposite: a roving judicial veto of state policies that federal judges dislike.

The most interesting part of this article, however?  This bit:

The purpose of the first ten amendments was laid out clearly by their Preamble. “Preamble?” You might ask. “What preamble?” Although the main body of the Constitution is never published without its Preamble, one could study American history for a lifetime without ever encountering the Preamble to the Bill of Rights.

That Preamble says that Congress is recommending amendments to the states because a number of states in ratifying the Constitution “expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added.” Since the people were afraid of the new Federal Government, that is, the Bill of Rights was being added to hedge in the powers of the Federal Government more carefully.

I never knew there was a preamble to the Bill of Rights.  But now that I do, I'm glad to admit that it gives significant ammunition to arguments for states' rights and limited government.  Check out the full preamble here.