"It took centuries of intellectual, philosophical development to achieve political freedom. It was a long struggle, stretching from Aristotle to John Locke to the Founding Fathers. The system they established was not based on unlimited majority rule, but on its opposite: on individual rights, which were not to be alienated by majority vote or minority plotting. The individual was not left at the mercy of his neighbors or his leaders: the Constitutional system of checks and balances was scientifically devised to protect him from both. This was the great American achievement—and if concern for the actual welfare of other nations were our present leaders’ motive, this is what we should have been teaching the world."
(I think we will on that last point.)
More great quotes on this topic here.
And that's a Republic
Yup. Rand wrote at length about this, how this country and its core operating principles were a product of the ideas/philosophy of the time and how this would not be possible before or certainly since (can you imagine the result of a Constitutional Convention today?).
The Constitution may have been based on individual rights, but it didn't state them explicitly and it didn't enforce them. Because of these errors (almost certainly intentional by subversive agents) they were taken away from the very first addition (Bill of Rights, end of 5th amendment).
Even the DoI didn't state it explicitly but implicitly. Leaving out "property" (as the original John Locke statement) and putting in "pursuit of happiness" was also almost certainly intentional fuckery. Only Sovereigns are allowed to own property. By leaving that out as an "inalienable right", and by not making an explicit statement of Sovereignty of the people enjoining the Social Contract (not implicit, which is what the DoI did) it left room for future laws that coerced away more and more of our "inalienable" rights and led us to believe we are proper vassels to the Sovereign government corporate entity called the U.S. Government.
One sentence was all it would have taken to truly be the document everyone wants it to be:
Done. No possible future fuckery can ensue with just this one sentence.
I don't like the hand-clap emoji, so imagine that I just posted a better version of the hand-clap emoji that we will get one day when all is made well.
"Or minority plotting" - I never caught that part. InDEED.
Ayn Rand was pro-abortion. That disqualifies anything else she says. Not a person of God.
Well she was a dedicated atheist. And, she had certainly extreme abortion views. This, however, does not mean the rest of her vast correct body of work is invalid.
No-one has philosophically defended individual rights all the way to first principles (axioms) like she has. Her ideas on political philosophy are essential to not losing what the FF arrived at.
What a small, leftist approach to intellectualism.