Limits on Government, Not on the People
- Share via
Re “Partial-Birth Ban Takes Aim at Right to Privacy,” Commentary, Sept. 30: Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), chief spokesman for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, asserts that the framers of the Constitution intended to give people only “the freedom to pursue the truth ... not hedonistic happiness, but true happiness that you find in serving others.” He’s wrong.
This is not a recipe for freedom, but for totalitarianism. Who is to decide whether citizens are pursuing the truth? Why, the government. This is what the founding fathers sought to avoid. Ayn Rand wrote that “the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens’ protection against the government.”
Stewart Margolis
Los Angeles
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox twice per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
