Darth Cheney, that vicious right-wing politician who would stop at nothing to enslave Americans, said this in the spring of 2009. "I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish." He said this in the context of gay marriage, but it captures a distinctly American principle."Freedom means freedom for everyone." That's the equality that was instilled by the founders of this country: an equality of freedom. Free to pursue your dreams and ambitions and work and love - so long as it doesn't rob anyone else of their freedom. The only way you preserve an equality of freedom for everyone is by ensuring that people can act according to their free will. You'll know that you've begun to rob people of their free will when you force them into an action against their will. Mandating how people spend their time, how they spend their money, the associations they make with other people, their beliefs, their speech... all of these force people to act against their will. Whenever the government robs a person of their free will, that's tyranny. And it's wrong. Which means that much of what government does these days is wrong. I'm with Dick Cheney: freedom means freedom for everyone, in every category of life. When Republicans and Democrats line up with that philosophy, they champion America. When they don't, they hasten its collapse. The natural instinct of people is self-determination. Everyone wants to make their own decisions. Unfortunately, while they want to safeguard their own self-determination, some want to mandate behavior for others - to make them act against their own free will, even if their actions cause no injury to others. Which gets back to Cheney's remarks. Ol' Dick caused quite a stir among Republicans when he stood up for individual freedom and spoke out in support of gay marriage. And if any other Republican truly believes in freedom for everyone, so would they. "Social issues," as they're called, were tried here in Iowa in the gubernatorial campaign of Bob Vander Plaats. And failed among Republican voters in the primary. If they're unpersuasive among Republicans as a central plank, perhaps "social issues" shouldn't be a plank at all. Which gets me back to freedom. Whichever party best embodies the preservation of freedom in America is the party most likely to win in elections. I say that neither party is popular at all because neither party seeks individual freedom for us in the cheap seats. Freedom means freedom for everyone. Do you believe that? | 
