Hmmm. The 2012 Election Reminds Me Of Something. This article questions which election of the past is most similar to the one looming before us. A number of them are noted. For our purposes here we will focus on the first: “1936: Franklin Delano Roosevelt vs. Alf Landon, says Alison Dagnes, who teaches political science at Shippensburg University. “The Republicans tried to attack FDR for his New Deal programs, saying they were too expensive and moved the country toward socialism — sound familiar?”The problem, she says, is that once a president gives the people new rights, the public grows attached and wants to keep them.” Can anyone spot the main problem here? Ding, ding, ding! That is correct. Despite what poli-moron Alison Dagnes thinks Presidents can’t grant new rights. Nor, despite the best efforts of Barry and company, do they have the authority to take any of our old ones away.
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IS it the "president" part, or the whole "new rights" part some of you are jumping on? Any law or controlling decision of a court certainly extends rights to a degree, and amendments to the Constitution most certainly do. Women and 18-year olds did not have the right to vote, black folks did not have the right to anything in a lot of states, noone had the right to elect a senator (going back to a recent topic here), etc etc. Of course many of these differ in kind and degree from those "certain unalienable rights" referred to in the Declaration of Independence, and stipulated in the Bill of Rights.
I would hesitate to assert that even the entire Bill extends that far -- while freedom of speech and religion may indeed be God-given and unalienable, I'm not sure that the Almighty has ever specifically addressed the topics of unreasonable search & seizure, excessive bail, the quartering of soldiers, or trial by jury when more than $20 is at stake.
'Scuse me but what "new rights" has Franklin Delano Obozo given us? The right to more expensive, less competent health care thanks to a POS bill nobody that voted on it read? The right to pay more for gasoline and electricity thanks to Dear Leader's obsession with the global warming kabuki dance? The right to high unemployment due to his desire to demonize anyone who makes a profit? These are just a sample of the "new rights" he's "given" us. So many "rights", so little time. Figures this article came from NPR, a propaganda outlet we have had the "right" to pay for whether we want to listen to their crap or not.
You forgot the right to pass on all the skyrocketing debt to our children and grandchildren.
I don't think it's "us" that has been given the new rights. Look at the new rights that the New Black Panthers have been given to intimidate voters at a polling pace. Look at the new rights that lowlife useful idiots have been given to occupy a place where people used to do business, and trash the place. Yeah, there's new rights. Given to the wrong people, for the wrong reasons.