I thought I'd stop for a bit and talk about rights, and which ones we have, which ones we should have, where they come from, why I think they're important, etc.
As a conservative, I believe that rights don't come from the government. They come from being human. It's the same thing that makes us believe that human life is sacred in any stage. In some ways, I believe it may even be a survival instinct, a think of the whole feeling.
Anyway, I do not believe that the government gives us rights or takes them away. I believe that we have them, and that the government is there to protect and defend them. The same way our founding fathers believed that rights are “God-given.”
So what are rights? What do we have the right to do and not do? Why do we have the right to do some things but not others. How does everyone have the same rights? Don't they overlap? Should they?
Well, no. And yes. The explanation is in the difference between positive and negative rights.
Negative rights are what our country was basically founded on, and which Conservatives in general believe are the best way forward. They require nothing but for others to not interfere with your actions. You have a right to sail on your own boat without interference from others. You have a right to spend your money how you like without interference. You have the right to not be hindered.
Positive rights are the opposite. They require others to provide you with something, a product, or a service. The welfare state is built on positive rights – it requires some humans to give things to other humans.
We talked a little about keeping the government small so that when it falls into the wrong hands there isn't much damage it can do, remember? So, if you believe that that is the best way to go, you'll also probably agree that it should never be able to force one person to give anything to another person.
That's what I believe. I believe in generosity and looking out for thy neighbor, and I believe that the government should get the fuck out of thy way while thou art doing so.
The reason that Conservatives aren't typically in favor of universal healthcare, universal this, welfare that, etc., is because it requires the creation of positive rights. The government points a gun and says to a doctor, you must treat this patient and you can only have this amount of money for it.
It's slavery. We don't want that in our country. We want doctors to be able to charge what they like for treatments. That doctor worked their ass off for years to become a doctor. We just think the government should get off her case and let her do her thing.
When the government stepped in and ordered everyone to purchase health insurance, we pushed back because that's tyrannical, and now they've set a precedent that the government can point a gun at you if you don't give them your resources for a certain product.
But people are okay with it. Free stuff.