We Conservatives believe individual liberty is not a government-granted entitlement but rather an unalienable natural right. Legitimate governments are established only with the consent of a society and only to the effect that the formed government can advance the well-being of the governed at large. Therefore, it is not the citizenry who obtains their rights from a government; it is a government that obtains its rights from the people.
—The Source of Individual Rights: Born at Liberty
|