There’s a rights crisis going on.  Most politicians talk about rights as if they grant them.  They don’t.  Rights aren’t granted—they’re recognized.  If they can be given, they can be taken.  That means they’re not rights.  They’re privileges dressed up in political language.

Natural rights don’t come from documents.  They exist whether or not they’re written down.  The Constitution doesn’t create rights.  It was meant to protect them.  That’s a difference most politicians either ignore or pretend not to understand.

If rights can be voted away, they were never rights.  Majorities don’t determine truth.  Nor can they override liberty.  Yet almost every so-called democratic process is used to do exactly that—override liberty.  People are told they agreed to it.  That they consented.  Forced compliance isn’t consent.  Taxation isn’t consent.  Regulation isn’t consent.  Threats aren’t consent.

Most laws now exist to control people, not protect them.  Most politicians exist to pass more of them.  That’s how they grow their influence.  It’s how they stay in power.  They call it “the will of the people.” It’s really the will of a few, using the many.

The only legitimate rights are those that exist regardless of permission.  Speech.  Property.  Self-defense.  Contract.  These don’t depend on votes or signatures.  They’re rooted in reason.  They’re discoverable.  They’re real.  If they weren’t, then tyranny would be just a matter of legal procedure.

When politicians talk about rights, what they really mean is control.  They promise new rights to distract from the ones they’ve already violated.  They invent categories—economic rights, collective rights, social rights.  These aren’t rights.  They’re claims on others.  That’s not liberty.  That’s servitude.

True rights require only one thing: non-interference.  They don’t demand anything from anyone else.  They don’t come with a cost to others.  If they do, they’re not rights.  They’re entitlements backed by threats.

There are only two kinds of rights: natural or fabricated.  Natural rights don’t need enforcement to exist.  Fabricated ones do.  That enforcement always requires a gun.

Most politicians will never say this out loud.  Their policies show it.  Their votes show it.  Their silence shows it.  Liberty is not their priority.  Control is.

Rights are not created.  They’re discovered.  They’re not given.  They’re defended.  Anything else is politics pretending to be principle.

Reference

Heinrich Rommen; The Natural Law