Progressives want you to believe the Declaration of Independence is a worthless document. Why? Because it is the foundation upon which our house is built, and it's a house of freedom, equality and personal responsibility --- not government control.
"The Declaration of Independence tells you six things in the two opening paragraphs that are eternal. It tells you there is a higher law than man's law. There is the law of nature. Does it happen in nature? And if it happens in nature, that's good. Then we know that's a natural right," Glenn explained Thursday on radio.
He went on to detail the other truths established in the Declaration that ensure our rights as American citizens:
1. There is a higher law
2. All men are equal and have rights
3. Our rights come from the creator
4. Governments are instituted among men to secure these rights
5. Government gets all of its power from the consent of the governed (the people)
6. When a government becomes destructive to those ends (protection of our God-given rights) we have the right to abolish or change it, and to institute a new government that will make us happy and secure in our rights.
The Declaration of Independence is what we believe. Combined with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, these three powerhouse documents have the ability to restrict the government and restore our Republic.
Enjoy this complimentary clip from The Glenn Beck Program:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:
The Declaration of Independence tells you six things in the two opening paragraphs that are eternal. It tells you: There is a higher law than man's law. There is the law of nature. Does it happen in nature?
And if it happens in nature, that's good. Then we know that's a natural right.
Now, does God come up above that and say because we're not an animal, we don't have a right to go kill other people for our food?
Yes. He says thousand shall not murder. He tells us what to eat. There's another law that usurps what happens in the animal kingdom.
And those two -- those two are your framework for all rights. It says, "All men are created equal and have rights." These rights come from the higher law. Nature and nature's God.
And the rights are not from any man. They're inalienable. So they come from God, which means no one can change them. Because I hate to break it to Al Gore: You can't change nature.
Rights are from the creator. Four, the government is only instituted -- what's its job? Well, it's got to build roads. It's got -- no, it doesn't. Governments are instituted among men to secure these rights.
PAT: Oh, and -- and to make airports nicer.
GLENN: Yeah, no.
PAT: You want to make them really shiny. You want to have a mall.
GLENN: Governments, their main job -- their main job is to preserve the rights that you find in nature and nature's God.
Then the government gets all of its power. It has no rights. It has all of its power from the consent of the governed.
So who is the government serving? The people who are giving it power.
And it has to listen to the consent of the governed.
Well, I contend the Supreme Court isn't doing that. I contend the G.O.P. isn't doing that. The Democrats aren't doing that. Bush didn't do that. Obama is not doing that.
That when a government becomes -- let me get the exact words. When it becomes destructive to those ends -- which ends? To protect your right, which comes from God and nature. Then you have the right to abolish or change it.
But there's more. Everybody -- everybody who is made at the government stops there. We're going to abolish it. We're going to burn it down.
Okay. You have a right to do that. But you'll notice, there's not a period after that line in the Declaration of Independence.
To alter or abolish and -- key word -- and to institute a new government, laying its foundation and organizing powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to make them happy and secure in those rights.
Everybody now is for anarchy. Burn it down. No! You have a right to alter or abolish. But what are you going to replace it with?
And you only have the right to alter or abolish, if that government will hearken to the higher law. Nature's God and nature's laws. And that government is instituted to secure those rights, not to build more hospitals, more bridges. Not to ensure world peace or keep you safe from terrorists.
Now, progressives want you to believe that the Declaration of Independence is a worthless document. Then I contend, we are 229 years old and not 240, which everyone in the -- on the planet will tell you we're 240 years old.
Let me give you an example: The Declaration of Independence is the what we believe. What is it we believe?
Men got together. When you want to build a house, you generally meet with an architect. And the architect says, "What do you want it to be like? Be specific. I want to know, what do you want it to feel like? What do you want it to look like? How do you want to use the rooms? What do you want to see in the windows? Do you -- what do you want?"
And you start generally, "We want something cozy. We want something magnificent. We want something to bring the outdoors in. I want to stop seeing the dreary weather. I don't want to see my neighbor." Whatever it is.
But generally speaking, an architect wants to hear what you feel. What is the point of each room? What is the point of your house, and what should it say?
When you finish that and they finish the document, you engage him to do it, and you sign a contract. Everybody in the room signs a contract. This is what we want. We're going to build that.
Then you have to go get a builder. And the builder comes in. And you say, "See this? I want to build this." And he says, "Okay. Well, to build that, I'm going to need this amount of money. I'm going need to these things. We're going to have to do this. We might have to change your vision a little bit here or there."
All men are created equal -- you got some slavery going on here. We might have to change some things. But I understand your intent.
Are all people going to be equal? Are you telling me that all the kids can use any bedroom at any time?
Yes, the baby's room can't be a baby's room the whole time. The baby is going to grow up. So, yes. We said that that's the baby room, but it has to be a room that a teenager could be in too.
Okay. Just want to make sure. Because you said it was the baby's room.
Yes, but things will change.
Okay. Great.
And you all sign that document.
Now, if you've had a problem with a contractor, like everybody has, you might also do a third document that says, "Oh, by the way, I've been burned by some contractors before, and you will not do these things." I know you're the contractor, but you do not have the right to do these things to my house or my property or my money.
Now, you know who didn't sign something like that? The builder of the Guggenheim. The builder of Falling Waters. Frank Lloyd Wright. He didn't care what you wanted.
In fact, he -- he went so far as one of his houses, the woman said, "I collect art, and my art is really important. And I want art on all of the walls." It pissed him off so much, that she would dare tell him what to do, he made it impossible for her to hang any art on the wall of her home.
Instead, he built a special room with little easels and a stairway to a loft up above, where she could walk up the stairs and look down at the easels at her art. That is what you get from working with Frank Lloyd Wright. That's a guy that you would have a third Bill of Rights -- yeah, you can't do these things.
This is the Declaration of Independence. What do we want the house to feel like? The Constitution is how do you build that? And the third one is, you can't do these things. The Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights restricts the contractor so you don't end up Frank Lloyd Wright. If you take away, what do we want it to look like? That's the architect's renderings
PAT: And, again, that's exactly why the Bill of Rights is a charter of negative liberties. It tells the --
GLENN: Yes.
PAT: It tells the builder what he cannot do to the house.
GLENN: Correct.
PAT: Because if you tell him the things he can do, anything that's not spelled out, he'll believe is his right.
GLENN: His right to do.
PAT: And he can go ahead and do it.
GLENN: Right. And so they say, we want to make it clear. It's in the first document that among these things -- put we just want to make that really clear.
PAT: These aren't the only things.
GLENN: We know that that's in the draft here. We know that the architect has put that in. So you can see the pretty picture and it's in the plans, but we want you to know: Those aren't the only things. There are also these things that you cannot do to the house.
And if you don't have the architectural drawings, the builder doesn't know what the hell he's even building.
That's the problem. The progressives, the first thing they did was get rid of the Declaration of Independence. It doesn't make any sense. What did Martin Luther King say? What stopped us? It wasn't the Constitution.
It was -- it's about time this country starts living up to its ideals, that all men are created equal.
Well, if the Declaration of Independence is worthless, then why should we give a flying crap about that?
Because we hold that truth to be self-evident, that's why. Because that's the house that we built. That's the image of who we are. The machinery with the Constitution may have gotten lost because the builder is no longer even using it as a reference point anymore.
And, in fact, the builder is saying, "By the way, I think those warnings that you said that I can't do those things, that third document -- I don't even think that third document, I can interpret that. And believe me. I've got nine other contractors over here, and they've looked at your -- your building plans. You can't build a house that way."
Well, wait a minute. I'm sorry. You get your power from the consent of me. So I guess your nine little men over there don't count over my vote. Because I got my family -- my 330 million people together, and they outweigh your nine freaking people, Mr. Contractor. So you're going to leave it there.
But we do what most people do when they're building a house: I knew that was wrong. I didn't want to say anything because I thought they knew better. And then you're living in a house you hate.
That is the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Restore that, and you won't have a problem with globalism. Because the house was never designed to be globalist!
Follow these three things, and we won't have a problem with poverty. Because it says we have the rights and the responsibilities to care for each other, not the government.
Follow those things, and we're going to be okay.
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