Humanity is the crux of the matter in almost everything political in America. The people have it and the government wants to take it. Since this plays out no matter what political party currently holds power, it is useless to say that Democrats want it worse than Republicans, because an American’s humanity is the prize and each will claim it and utilize it to their ends.
At this point in American political history, our humanity must be reclaimed, because it has effectively been taken already and a long time ago. Bill Buppert at ZeroGov has a great article on this right now. The Constitution does not guarantee anything, it outlines those rights that an American has as a human being and the Ninth Amendment goes even further and states that: “the enumeration of certain rights does not deny or disparage others retained by the people.” But, all of that is negated by legislation to the contrary albeit unconstitutional legislation.
When I wrote the Constitutionalist, it was to illuminate for those new to the arguments that our Constitution was being violated in this way and that, by the violation of this clause and that, but the understanding was supposed to be that the Constitution was unable to secure those rights; that always those rights were subject to enforcement by the people themselves. Those who endure the removal of rights by legislation and do not go out to confront those who have legislated them away are, in fact, conceding their humanity.
TL -- I love your enthusiasm, but there is a huge ‘non sequitur’ in your essay:
“The only thing that makes an American any different from a slave is the notion that they have rights that supersede the [government]” … so far, so good.
…
“The only thing that gives our humanity a thread of existence is the vote.” … oops, not so good.
My humanity is not dependent upon a privilege granted by a government.