It seems that every day we hear more and more about ‘rights’
and ‘freedoms’ from the right wing in this country. We’re subjected to a
constant litany of complaints about the supposed infringement on these precious
commodities. We hear about 2nd Amendment rights, rights to low
taxes, freedom from regulation, freedom from obligations to take responsibility
for…wait a moment. What were those two words? Back up. ‘Obligations’?
‘Responsibility’? These two words seem to be outside the vocabulary of these
complainers. How can one go on and on about one’s patriotism and love of
country and rights and freedoms without every mentioning these two words? How
can you love a country to which you feel you owe absolutely nothing but from
which you enjoy all the fruits of its liberties?
You can’t just chant ‘USA! USA!’ and ‘Support the troops’ in
one breath, and in the next breath begrudge the funds (aka taxes) needed to actually, literally support the troops.
You certainly can’t use that old chestnut ‘Freedom isn’t free’ when you want
your freedom to be literally free of
charge.
You can’t bemoan attempts to place sane boundaries around
your 2nd Amendment rights when that right begins to cut into the
more fundamental right of six-year-old children to live, to not have their
bodies riddled with bullets from high-capacity, semi-automatic assault rifles.
What about your obligations to them?
You can’t talk about ‘freedom of choice’ in the context of
our healthcare system when real choice and the highest-quality care are
restricted to the wealthiest people. Yes, we have the most advanced healthcare
available in the world, but the vast majority of us aren’t ‘free’ to choose
that level of care. If having the most
advanced care available were synonymous with having the best healthcare system, then our
outcomes would be higher and we wouldn’t be ranked behind most other developed
countries in life expectancy. Without the obligation
to extend healthcare to all Americans, having the freedom for some select
people to choose the best healthcare is meaningless.
Folks on the right wing in this country claim to be the
patriots, the lovers of freedoms. But if you want freedom without
responsibility, you’re not a patriot. You’re a freeloading leech sucking away
resources without wanting to give anything back. That’s not my definition of
patriotism.
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