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One Set of Civil Rights                                                                        

The Declaration of Independence affirms, “All men are created equal.” Great Patriots throughout our history have struggled to make this vision into reality. Over the last few years, Americans have seen a regression back into inequality. Congress has enacted legislation that favors some Americans and discriminates against others. Our Congress is now picking winners and losers.

 The largest single bill to recently pass through Congress was the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The most controversial portion was the individual mandate, which compels Americans to purchase health insurance. The Supreme Court will rule on the Constitutionality of that. Regardless, Congress wrote into the law the authority to arbitrarily exclude some Americans. At present over 600,000 Americans have been authorized to choose for themselves whether or not to purchase insurance. The rest have not.

 It is time Congress made a commitment to limited government. It is easy for politicians to promise government solutions and programs to solve our everyday problems. As Obamacare clearly illustrates, every government solution comes at the cost of some of your liberty. We are a compassionate Nation. We need safety nets for those who have temporarily fallen short. When the safety net includes everyone regardless of will, it is a jail. When the safety net includes you against your will and not your neighbor for an arbitrary reason, it is institutional discrimination.

 Congress has turned to class warfare as a means of pandering for support. The implicit promise is made, that revenue will be confiscated from one citizen and given to another citizen. The fallacious argument is presented that the successful citizens have somehow cheated. If that is the case, we already have laws to prosecute them. What Congress does not have is a Constitutional, moral, or ethical justification to confiscate anything more from one citizen than from another. This is bigotry and it is rapidly becoming institutional discrimination. One set of civil rights for everybody.

 When the government engages in picking winners and losers for arbitrary reasons, it has failed to protect the civil rights of its citizens. To imply that a citizen has somehow cheated to acquire wealth and then to confiscate it is a violation of that citizen’s Bill of Rights (5^th Amendment-Due Process of Law) as well as the 14^th Amendment (which guarantees equal protection under the law). This is a blatant violation of the Congressional Oath of Office, a violation of public trust, and fundamentally unethical and immoral. 

Great Americans have fought throughout our history for our civil rights. Reject politics and politicians that have no respect for this Nation’s commitment to equality.