Liberty – curse word in America?

Liberty – curse word in America?
By Terry A. Hurlbut
A concept basic to the foundation and working of the United States of America now draws undisguised contempt. That concept is liberty. Suddenly half the country seems to want to curtail liberty wherever they can, in the name of “safety” for themselves. Some of these people, if they don’t get their way, are threatening to leave the country. True, many threatened to leave the country in 2016, then didn’t do it. Now some of them are – while others rejoice in actions by some State governments that violate every concept of liberty. Why has liberty become a curse word? What could possibly be more important than liberty to those now attacking it?
What does liberty mean?
Liberty is one of the Three Inalienable Rights, that one finds in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (The other two are life, and what’s called “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration and “property” in the Constitution.) Without liberty, people do not govern themselves; someone else governs them instead. The Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment, both allude to liberty.
Liberty means that the government cannot detain you without saying why. Nor may the government declare you outlaw, nor punish you in future for something perfectly lawful when you do it. Liberty includes the freedom to practice religion as you choose (and not having a government church). It includes freedom of speech, and of the press, assembly, and petition. At a basic level it includes the right of self-defense, and possession of the means of self-defense.
The Constitution further declares that all States must respect liberty at a basic level. That is what the Constitution means by “privileges and immunities.”
The political left in the United States has never honored basic liberty, except when it suits their aims at the destruction of culture and the promotion of depravity. In this they take inspiration from the Bolsheviks who created the Soviet Union – and their eventual executioner, Josef Stalin. (Here Stalin illustrates the observation that the left inevitably eats its own.) The arrival of a champion of liberty has caused them to abandon all pretense of “electoral sportsmanship,” or respect for anyone’s ideas but their own.
Disrespect for rights, and for “privileges and immunities”
Inevitably the first basic right to come under attack is the right to keep and bear arms. Last month the Hawaii Supreme Court launched the most brazen attack on a basic liberty imaginable. They actually rebuked the Supreme Court of the United States to say that Hawaii has the authority not to allow people to keep or bear arms. Before them appeared a man convicted of carrying a gun publicly without a permit. That man (through his lawyers) cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling striking down New York State’s gun laws. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
https://rumble.com/v19q6r1-second-amendment-wins-big.html?mref=4teej&mc=88ce6
In a unanimous ruling, the Hawaii Court held that the Bruen case had no force or effect in Hawaii. To justify that, they cited a television script as their authority. State of Hawaii v. Wilson, SCAP-22-0000561, 7 February 2024.
The thing about the old days, they the old days.
The Wire: Home Rooms (HBO television broadcast Sept. 24, 2006) (S04E03)
One could probably dismiss that as a joke, because in fact they cited other precedents to say that the law doesn’t expect them to study history. The problem is: those modern precedents are of highly dubious probative value. They seem to say, “In our modern era, we’re not going to allow such liberty anymore, because it’s too dangerous!”
Nor is this the only example. Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) will sign a law criminalizing free speech. It even provides for taking information from tattling friends and relatives against those who express “bias” against members of “protected groups.”
Leaving the country?
Every Presidential election cycle draws out those who threaten to leave the country if the candidate they hate, wins. Shortly after the Election of 2016, The Hollywood Reporter listed several celebrities who threatened to leave the country, but didn’t. Three weeks ago, Bill Maher scornfully told such “entitled whiners” to stop making idle threats – and also to recognize how good live is in America for those same celebrities. He especially pointed out that few countries enjoy the blessings of liberty America has.
Threatening is one thing; carrying out the threat, quite another. Last week, Paul Starobin, writing in Business Insider, reported a rise in actual interest by Americans looking for property in Italy to which to relocate. He cited three specific examples, from Montana, Texas, and Tennessee – all “red” States. Then he cited (but did not link to) several headlines in The Washington Post and The Atlantic actually talking about dictatorship in American if Donald Trump wins reelection. Furthermore, he cited a tangible sign that people really are moving out of America in large numbers. Rents and property values are rising in the destination countries – often provoking backlash.
But his description of why people want to leave America was the most instructive. They cite Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s, the closest decision yet to respecting a right to life.
https://rumble.com/v19sqbz-roe-v.-wade-has-fallen-has-fallen.html?mref=4teej&mc=88ce6
And they cite Bruen and similar rulings. In contrast to these, Europe is allowing, even encouraging, mothers to kill their babies, and restricting guns largely to law-enforcement, military, VIPs and bodyguards.
Why don’t they like liberty?
Never mind those who might be leaving because their efforts to “stop Trump” included prosecutable criminal acts. (Chief among them: perjury, misprision of felonies, and withholding of evidence.) We see a large portion of people openly hostile to liberty – and especially ordered liberty.
They also are hostile to the concepts “life” (they support abortion on demand) and “property.” A thief is an irregular wealth-redistribution agent – and a murderer is an irregular population thinner. This is not only about encouraging women to celebrate the act of abortion, and confiscating weapons. This is about electing public prosecutors who decline to prosecute common garden-variety crime. Whatever else Victor Hugo’s most famous leading character Jean Valjean did, he never murdered anyone. Yes we have prosecutors who prosecute, not those who rob or attempt to kill, but those who defend themselves against such people. If ending that practice is reason enough for some to leave the country, then good riddance to bad rubbish.
But at least those who wish to leave the country, no longer trouble our peace. (Though if Democrats Abroad really does register people to vote who actually domicile themselves abroad, that must stop.) State Governors and Supreme Courts who actually “make [and] enforce laws [and rulings] that … abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States” are another matter. If their acts stand, Constitutional government will fail. But conservatives won’t decamp to Europe, and certainly not Canada – but to Texas, to make that a separate country.
https://rumble.com/v4ia9bf-texas-primary-advances-conservative-and-secessionist-cause.html?mref=4teej&mc=88ce6
Link to:
Previous video:
https://rumble.com/v19q6r1-second-amendment-wins-big.html?mref=4teej&mc=88ce6
https://rumble.com/v19sqbz-roe-v.-wade-has-fallen-has-fallen.html?mref=4teej&mc=88ce6
https://rumble.com/v4ia9bf-texas-primary-advances-conservative-and-secessionist-cause.html?mref=4teej&mc=88ce6

Ruling: State of Hawaii v. Wilson, SCAP-22-0000561
https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/SCAP-22-0000561.pdf

Report in The Hollywood Reporter, 10 November 2016:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/20-stars-who-pledged-flee-country-trump-was-elected-are-they-945888/

Report: Bill Maher calls out “entitled whiners”:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/entitled-whiners-bill-maher-calls-out-celebrities-who-threatened-to-leave-america-under-donald-trump-but-stayed/ar-BB1ifDCk

Report from Business Insider:
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-reelected-americans-are-planning-to-flee-in-droves-2024-3?op=1

Report from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/if-trump-wins/

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