The Eastern Wall: Protecting the Right to Pursue Happiness

In the Declaration of Independence, the founders expressed their belief that every person had the God given inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (1).  In this posting I will be looking at what the Republican Party can do to protect the right to the pursuit of happiness.  However, let us first define what is meant by the pursuit of happiness. 

First, the authors of the Declaration of Independence did not believe we had the right to be happy but that we had the right to pursue happiness.  This may seem like a small issue but I believe it is actually a great difference and in this difference, we can find the reason for the division in our country’s politics today. 

When a liberal of statist in our country feels unhappy, they look to the government for some program that will restore their happiness.  For example, these liberal statists see that over 57.5 million people were without medical insurance for part or all of 2012 (2) and pass a massive piece of legislation, Obamacare, to “solve” the problem.  The legislation is so massive that they do not even read it and tell us that after they pass it, we will discover what is in it.  Well, now we have had time to read it and guess what, even after full implementation of Obamacare 30 million individuals will remain uninsured.  (3) 

In addition, people are now learning that their employers will be cutting their hours from 40 hours per week to less than 30 hours in order to be exempt from the requirement to provide health insurance.  (4)  Hard working people, working to pursue economic happiness in their lives, find themselves denied that right because of a piece of legislation designed to make liberal statists feel happy because they have provided health insurance for all the uninsured except for the 30 million the legislation missed. 

Then we have the radical environmentalists that believe they have a right to happiness, which to them is saving the planet.  They have concocted the theory of global warming and have convinced many, including many politicians, that we are destroying the planet.  They continue to spew their rhetoric in spite of the fact that scientists now claim that global warming is only about a quarter of what they thought it was.  (5) If that was not bad enough, artic ice grew 60% in the last year.  (6)  I wonder how happy this makes these environmentalists.

Unfortunately, the environmentalists attempts to find happiness through saving the planet is hindering the pursuit of happiness for everyone else.  Their refusal to allow drilling, especially fracking, is causing us to pay an exorbitant price at the pump.  In January 2009 at the inauguration of President Obama, the average price of regular gas was $1.84 per gallon.  (7)  The average price as of September 16, 2013 is $3.52 per gallon or almost double and the price has set a record by being above $3 per gallon for 1000 days (8)  

This inability to access the abundant supply of crude oil right under our feet means we are dependent on foreign oil, most of which comes from the Middle East.  In other words, the price of gas at the pump is dependent on some Middle Eastern leader that most likely does not like us.  These high gas prices mean Americans have less money to spend on vacations or products that make them happy.  Business owners have less money to invest in growing their businesses and creating jobs that will make more individuals happy. 

Then we have political ambulance chasers that derive their happiness by taking advantage of tragedies like the shooting at the DC Naval base to further their agenda of taking away the second amendment rights of individuals in our country to bear arms.  Even while law enforcement was conducting their investigation and the bodies were still at the site, President Obama said, “So we are confronting yet another mass shooting, and today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital,….  Obviously, we’re going to be investigating thoroughly what happened, as we do so many of these shootings, sadly, that have happened, and do everything that we can to prevent them.”  Senator Diane Feinstein took Obamas promise to do everything we can to prevent gun violence as a green light to once again attempt to push strict gun control legislation through the Senate.  (9) 

Once again the happiness gun control advocates derive from taking advantage of tragic shootings to push their pet political agenda of gun control is depriving gun owners of the happiness they derive from owning a gun.  These gun owners are not brutal killers and own guns for sport and to gain a sense of security.  It would have been nice if the first victim of this shooting would have been able to draw a gun him or herself and take out this brutal killer before he could hurt anyone.  Unfortunately, this military base is a gun free zone and the killer was not taken out until law enforcement arrived.  By then the damage had already been done and the families of the victims had their right to the pursuit of happiness and their loved one taken away by a brutal killer and government policy prohibiting trained military personnel from carrying firearms on a domestic military base. 

Our founders favored a small nonintrusive government that would provide a secure environment for people to pursue happiness.  This does not include forcing people to purchase a product like health insurance that they may not want or need and seeing their incomes drop as their hours are reduced.  It does not include restricting the use or our own resources and placing our nation’s economic stability at the mercy of people in a foreign country that may not like us and forcing Americans to pay an exorbitant price at the pump.  It also does not include placing Americans, including military personnel, at risk by not allowing them to carry a firearm to protect them. 

The Republican Party must adopt a platform that delivers smaller less intrusive government.  The leadership of the Party must allow the people in the Party to elect people to office that are not interested in trying to get along with Democrats but are interested in following through on their promise to shrink government’s intrusion into the lives of citizens.  Failure to do this will result in further losses by the Party and even the possibility of the emergence of a viable third party that will replace them, making the Republican Party a third party. 

Wake up GOP leadership.  This is not a game for the future of The United States of America is at stake. 

1. Hillsdale College. The Declaration of Independance. The U.S. Constitution: A reader. Hillsdale Michigan : Hillsdale College Press, 2012.

2. Young, Jeffery. Uninsured Americans 2012: More Than 45 Million Lacked Health Insurance Last Year, CDC Reports. www.huffingtonpost.com. [Online] The Huffington Post, March 21, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/uninsured-americans-2012_n_2918705.html.

3. Kilff, Sarah. Obamacare leaves millions uninsured. Here’s who they are. www.washingtonpost.com. [Online] The Washington Post, June 7, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/07/obamacare-leaves-millions-uninsured-heres-who-they-are/.

4. Houston, Warner Todd. AFL-CIO PRESIDENT TRUMKA ADMITS OBAMACARE MAKING EMPLOYERS CUT HOURS. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, September 5, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/04/AFL-CIO-Prez-Trumka-Admits-That-Obamacare-is-Causing-Employers-to-Cut-Hours.

5. Rose, David. World's top climate scientists confess: Global warming is just QUARTER what we thought - and computers got the effects of greenhouse gases wrong . www.dailymail.co.uk. [Online] The Daily Mail, September 14, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2420783/Global-warming-just-HALF-said-Worlds-climate-scientists-admit-computers-got-effects-greenhouse-gases-wrong.html.

6. —. And now it's global COOLING! Record return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 60% in a year. www.dailymail.co.uk. [Online] The Daily Mail, September 7, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html.

7. Consumer Reports. Average gas prices--January 26, 2009. www.consumerreports.org. [Online] Consumer Reports, January 26, 2009. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/01/average-gas-prices-january-26-2009/index.htm.

8. Strauss, Chris Woodyard and Gary. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/01/average-gas-prices-january-26-2009/index.htm. www.usatoday.com. [Online] USA Today, September 16, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/09/16/gas-prices-thousand-days/2821351/.

9. Wolfgang, Ben. Obama, Feinstein reignite fight for gun control after Navy Yard shooting. m.washingtontimes.com. [Online] The Washington Times, September 16, 2013. [Cited: September 17, 2013.] http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/16/navy-yard-shooting-revives-gun-control-fight/.