John Locke thought liberty came from God, but I disagree.
I think liberty comes from power, and therein lies the importance of inalienable rights: They give power to the individual. This is why preserving liberty is important for everybody, and this is also why tyrants try and disarm their populace. Gun rights matter. They empower the individual to remain a constant accountability check for our legislature, and remind the executive that they get their authority from our consent.
Other non-democratic regimes do not enjoy the American gun rights such as South Korea, so I often scoff when democratically conscripting ourselves to slavery via referendum or representation such as in California. How ironic is it that America’s disarming will likely come at the hands of American citizens? But not to worry, we will be safe, right? In trade for some rights and liberties we the People will receive absolute protection from the state, right? And, surely, there’s some internal mechanism to police the police? And, of course, to police the police that police the police? Or, maybe, we can end the madness and cut the middle man, protect ourselves, and vote for liberty every time. Or, at the very least, vote for who you think is best, and not out of spite.
End the vicious cycle now: Start voting.
I’ve seen the cycle first hand: The voter starts as a Democrat, because they care as a young idealist, until they become disenchanted by their blatant hypocrisy, then they move to being a Republican, because they just want good government, until they realize how much religion and principle there is in a supposed logical “good government”, and then what? The voter either drops out or becomes the one of 10,000 people that voted Harambe as a write-in out of spite — the former being almost half of the registered voters who give up. That is the thrown-away vote, the one that was literally thrown away.
Sure, maybe your candidate won’t win. So, you’re just going to give up? Don’t. There is one big reason to vote for who you want (and not against who you really don’t want), and that’s because the party you like becomes a state-recognized party with 5% of the national vote. That means that your party won’t have to pay $300,000 per state to get on the ballot in the general election, which is good, because a penny saved is a penny earned. Also, there is something called a Presidential Election Campaign Fund that’s a grant that gives a candidate in a recognized party campaign funds that don’t come out of the party’s pocket-book (this being especially beneficial to smaller parties not too well-backed by big corporations and pocket-books).
One must also wonder what the legislature would be like if they had to use coalitions among parties to get anything passed. Could you imagine all of the rights and liberties that government never would have intruded on in the first place? The point is if you think that voting is dumb because you don’t like the two-party system, then it is on you personally to vote for who you want. Don’t blame the Electoral College, that democratic mechanism has henceforth stopped New York and California from becoming bureaucratic totalitarian regimes that force us to follow their bidding — which has shown to be intensely restrictive of liberties — without ever understanding the needs of the rest of the country. It’s bad enough that California has a ten-day waiting period for all firearm purchases, and that New York has a stop-and frisk policy in effect. Imagine them in charge of our collective general will with free lease to do what they please. No, thank you.
Also, I didn’t have anything against voting Harambe. If you need further inspiration to vote who you truly want, imagine a world where there is an American Harambe Party and the National Deez Nutz Party. Imagine an America where truly all ideas are entertained, and not just those of Jon Stewart or MSNBC. The parties there for novelty will quickly disperse once the allure wears off, and the coalition of the parties truly representative of our intents will surely settle on more liberty for all. Probably some justice, too.
* Jesse Campbell is a former marine with one combat tour in Afghanistan, a father and husband, and a currently in his junior year of his political science degree. He likes anything outdoors and dogs, lots and lots of dogs.
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