Glenn Reynolds On "Unalienable Rights", Plus: Barack Obama as Mohamed Morsi?

The Professor is less of a blogger and more of a clearinghouse of libertarian ideas and thought, but his truncated commentary is often quite powerful.  Linking to Ilya Somin's: What to Do When Illiberal, Anti-Democratic Forces Take Power Through the Democratic Process, Glenn adds the following:

Remember: Democracy is a means, not an end. It’s valuable as a means of protecting those unalienable rights that include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But those rights are unalienable — incapable of being alienated, that is, bought, sold, or given away — which means that even if you live in a democracy, you haven’t surrendered them to the majority. A majority that wants to take away your unalienable rights isn’t a legitimate government. I’m gratified by how many Egyptians seem to grasp that; it’s more than I expected, though perhaps not as many as it needs to be. It’s clearly more than the Muslim Brotherhood expected, too.


Which, of course, begs the question:  Is the current administration, with their 51% "mandate", a legitimate government?   Is a government that is in the process of taking away our rights -  to religious freedom, to defend ourselves, and (with the implementation of ObamaCare, and the admittedly forthcoming Death Panels) our right to life itself -  still legitimate, despite it coming to power via a democratic system?

And if Barack Obama and the Democrats simply gamed the system using a propaganda campaign of half-truths and full lies, paid for by rich donors and propped up by a compliant media, isn't their regime as troublesome and suspect as the Muslim Brotherhood?

Of course, the Egyptians are back out on the streets.  Brave, considering that Barack Obama just supplied President Morsi with a whole fleet of F-16s, which oddly coincided with a vicious crackdown on the resurgent protesters...


And the American people?  Seems like we are beginning to get a grasp on the concept, as 53% of us now believe that the federal government threatens our own personal rights and freedoms.

And yet, we're still sitting at home, waiting and watching.  For a savoir, perhaps.

News Flash: He/she ain't coming.  And we are about to find out how "unalienable" Barack Obama and the Left think our rights are...