1/ Lost in the #MarriageEquaility drama, lost for a long time really, is the vital distinction between Rights and Liberties.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
Also Storified courtesy of Galt’s Girl if, like me, you hate the click-thrus.
2/ Liberties are those things you are free to pursue — free, that is, from government interference.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
3/ Rights are those things government must take an active roll in protecting.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
4/ Property is a right — government has a roll in protecting it from thieves and even from the predations of government itself.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
5/ Voting is a right. Government must protect your access to the ballot box.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
6/ As a corollary, government has the duty to ensure that it holds elections, and that those elections are free, fair, and meaningful.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
7/ Finding work, making money, speaking your mind, marriage — these things are liberties, not rights — things you are free to pursue.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
8/ If there were a "right" to work, then government would have the duty to provide you with a job. The Soviets tried that bullshit, FWIW.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
9/ You have the liberty to speak; government does not have the duty to provide you with a microphone.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
10/ If marriage were a right rather than a liberty, government would have the duty to provide you with a suitable mate. Clearly ridiculous.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
11/ But government has no business or interest stopping two men or two women from pursuing their liberty to marry.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
12/ …any more than government can force a Catholic church to marry divorced persons…
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
13/ …or require a Synagog to perform a Nazi wedding service (assuming for the sake of argument there is a Nazi service)…
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
14/ …or demand that a mosque marry a Jewish couple.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
15/ Our longtime and continued insistence as a people on conflating rights with liberties has empowered government….
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
16/ …to strip away our real liberties in the pursuit of protecting imaginary rights.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
17/ …the result is that everyone is free to engage in fleeting happinesses (which I endorse wholeheartedly!) like booze and strippers…
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
18/ …but that fewer people are still free to pursue the larger and enduring happinesses provided by the blessings of liberty.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
19/ Furthermore, I honestly believed I'd get a nice, round 20 tweets out of this, but no.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) June 26, 2015
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