Republicans tend to focus on individual
responsibility, Democrats tend to focus on
rights. Democrats tend to enumerate lots of rights, but relative to responsibility, they are less precise. In the Democrat world, rights accrue with no stated responsibility, however, closer examination finds there are always a lot of "others" that at least tacitly somehow have the supposed responsibility to fund all those "rights"-- Wall Street, The Rich, Big Business, etc.
The Democrat view of the world tends to be somewhat like endless childhood--the individual has a lot of rights and someone else has the responsibility to pay the freight to make them operable.
The following is FDR enumerating some in his 2nd inaugural:
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all--regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
Unfortunately, unlike the right to speech, keeping and bearing arms, being able to keep your personal property, freedom from search and seizure and the right to opportunity, these are "rights" that require dollars in order to make them happen. Where does that come from? How do you guarantee a right that someone has to pay for?
Good old FDR listed a lot of rights there, but whose
responsibility is it to fund all those rights? Even worse, actual "responsibility" means that one would take the action
voluntarily -- a coerced action is not really something for which you are "responsible", it is something that you are compelled to do. It isn't a choice of your free will.
So in a nutshell, Democrats believe that "someone else" (corporations, the rich, etc) ought to be
FORCED to provide for all the of the "rights" that they believe are meant to be theirs. Free people could choose if they wanted to contribute to the list above, how much they wanted to contribute, and in what conditions. That is what is known as "chairity". If these are truly "rights" however, then everyone is
entitled to them, so someone will need to be
coerced to pay for them. To date they have largely restricted themselves to confiscation of income or a percentage of assets on sale or death. There are rumblings about going after assets like 401Ks under the theory that people with money there had "too preferential of a tax status" to save that money.
What of the right to private property, honoring contracts and other aspects of the rule of law? It seems that Democrats are always willing to see the real Constitutional rights suffer in order to create some new rights that they feel will get them more votes. What will the BO "Bill of Rights" be? Somehow, I don't think it will motivate a lot of economic growth.
