RUSH: It’s been suggested to me, by the way, that the young man who called about the Ninth Amendment and the courts and the judges making rights and so forth might have been a Libertarian, as opposed to a liberal, because Libertarians do focus a lot on the Ninth Amendment as the freedom to go out and do anything just because they think it’s a blank check, and so that’s entirely possible. Now, by the way, the rights enumerated in our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, without me reciting them to you, what do you think is the most valuable right? There’s not a contest here, folks. I mean, there’s only one answer. What is the most relevant and important right that, without it, nothing else matters?
Come on, now! You’re stumped in there? (interruption) No. Snerdley is saying private property. That’s a key right, the right to own property. No. The right to life! The right to life — and, of course, that right has been denounced by judges in a decision called Roe vs. Wade. There is no right to life. (interruption) But it is. It is a right granted by God. It’s codified in the Constitution, in the Declaration. “We are all endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, among them, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In those few words, the people that wrote the Declaration of Independence defined creation, life, and the natural yearning to be free, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nobody wants to be miserable, not anybody that’s normal.
So many people do not, a majority, I’d say almost all. The exceptions here are so rare, that it’s unfortunate. How many people do you think, putting it to you in a simpler context, how many people get the most out of their lives? We get one life. And when you stop and think about how much of it is filled with angst and worry and concern, when you’re occupying… This is not a criticism. This is quite natural. What are you missing? What are we all missing when we engage in those behaviors or what have you? Our tendency to focus on ourselves in a selfish way, not self-interested way, but a selfish way also limits the ability to get the most out of life.
You may have run into a person now and then who you, “Wow, that person is living, getting the most,” and I’m not talking about recreational. I’m not talking about any specific activity, it’s more a mind-set, more a constant contentment with occasional joy at just being alive and having the opportunity to maximize. Most people do not get nearly all there is to get out of life, and that’s sad, but it’s also quite normal. As I say, this is not a criticism, but those three enumerations in the Declaration of Independence in my estimation perfectly define the authors’ understanding of our own creation. “We are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” among them the right to life. There can be no other purpose for creation but life. Liberty. Who wants to live slaved? Who wants to live in prison? Who wants to lived hemmed in? It’s not the natural yearning of the human being. And the pursuit of happiness. Anything that gets in the way of that from the standpoint of the authors of the Declaration, is something that is to be feared and opposed.
So the Bill of Rights comes along when it’s finally time to write the Constitution, and because of the thinking that went into the drafting of the Declaration Of Independence, carried over to the Constitution in terms of, you know, we’ve gotta create this government because we have to manage our affairs, but be very careful of it and we’re going to spell out the ways that government cannot infringe on the right to life, on the right to liberty, and the right to pursue happiness. Of course, human beings are fallible, and as they mass power and congregate they all tend to think that they know better than the masses.
So we’ve been very lucky to survive this long as a functioning representative republic, and we’ll go on for a long time. We’re truly unique, but it’s because of our founding documents. It’s because of that Declaration; it’s because there is a root to the understanding and the proclamations in the Declaration and in the writing of the Constitution. It’s not an accident. It was a miracle that took place in Philadelphia, and I ponder this a lot when I get calls like we had in the last hour from this guy who was just obsessed with the Ninth Amendment, and I know exactly why. The Ninth Amendment is a get out of jail free card, the Ninth Amendment is, “Katie, go to town! Government can’t stop you or whatever,” and that, as I discussed last hour, wasn’t the purpose.
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