Any candidate who says, ”I am coming to take your (FILL IN THE BLANK)” doesn’t deserve your vote.
The job does not entitle that person to confiscate wealth or property from anyone. Does not matter if it’s guns, books, land or someone’s business.
Gerry
September 18, 2020
Comment to Quote of the day—David Harsanyi
[More that that! They probably deserve prosecution.—Joe]
That same logic applies to “I’m going to raise your taxes.”
Yep, taxations is just democratically approved extortion. Why don’t they teach that in civics class?
“The job does not entitle that person to confiscate wealth or property from anyone.”
I’d rather it had been meant to say “should not entitle”, because “does not entitle” is a misstatement of reality.
I wonder if the Jews told themselves, “The Nazis are not entitled to do that.”
To say that governments are, literally, entitled to confiscate wealth and property would be stating that which is obvious to every individual on the planet. One might even say that wealth confiscation is the primary purpose of all earthly governments, for taxation is a certainty whereas the things they might end up actually doing with the booty are a matter of constant disagreement and conflict. The operative motto, then, appears to be, “Steal it now! We’ll worry about what to do with it (and how to justify it) later.”
Ellen White, a woman who received a bad head injury as a child, and ended up with only three years of education, had this to say on the subject (emphasis mine);
“When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country [the United States] shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.
“Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer….”
There were other words to the effect; “national apostasy leading to national ruin”. You get the point.
She wrote that more than 120 years ago, just before the major rise of the Progressive movement. I don’t expect you to believe it now, but you will see it later. In fact we’re seeing it coming together now.
But seeing something is first a matter of where you choose to look (driver’s education programs teach this very well). Alternatively, it becomes a matter of how hard you collide with that thing you failed to see, and whether your insurance is any good.
No, “does not entitle” is correct. Entitle means “grant title”, i.e., legal authority or ownership.
The fact that a politician is currently getting away with violating the law, Constitution, or norms of civilization doesn’t entitle him, it only means he is an as-yet unindicted criminal.
“Not entitled” also means that honest people have a legal and moral authority to put a stop to that criminal behavior, using such tools as may be necessary to do the job.