"It is no coincidence that the first right listed in the Declaration of Independence is the right to life," said Kellyanne Conway to an anti-abortion rally in Washington on Friday.
Actually, it is a coincidence.
A longer look at the document of 1776, in the section where the Founders write of self-evident truths, shows this phrase: "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (Emphasis added.)
There is no mention of women and children, nor of family planning, nor of the many black slaves in the country at the time. It took another hundred years until black men (and women) achieved liberty, many more decades until women won the right to vote, and even today the pursuit of happiness is denied to many of those same people, as well as to many others yearning to breathe free in America.
The Declaration of Independence also states, "To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." And when a government tries to impose "absolute despotism," it is the right and the duty of a free people to throw off such a government.
At the time, that meant a revolution, also known as the War of Independence. Today, however, the people can throw off such a government by using the ballot box.
Demagogues, take heed.
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