“What our founders put forth in our founding documents, which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that is exactly what the Affordable Care Act helps to guarantee.”
Those were the words, last night, of Nancy Pelosi.
Somewhere, on the Montpelier Estate, James Madison, the Father of our Constitution just rolled over in his grave…and extended a middle finger in the general direction of Nancy Pelosi.
Along with being a brilliant political theorist and statesman, Madison was a keen judge of character.
Just as Madison was a great American, another such man of renown, Noah Webster, provided a definition with which, one must suspect, Nancy Pelosi has no known relationship.
LIBERTY, n. 1: [Noun] Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty, when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty, when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty, when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.. 2: [Noun] Natural liberty, consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.. 3: [Noun] Civil liberty, is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty, so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty, not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty. The liberty of one depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from him, as on the due restraint upon the liberty of others. In this sentence, the latter word liberty denotes natural liberty..
When Madison wrote of Life…LIBERTY…and the Pursuit of Happiness…One can quickly see that Mr. Webster had a much greater idea of what was meant by…”Liberty.”
