Top Democratic 2020 White House hopefuls gathered in Las Vegas Wednesday for a forum on gun control held on the 2nd anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
At the forum, sponsored by MSNBC with the gun control groups March for Our Lives and Giffords, Democrats pushed for far stricter federal gun laws than Democrats have ever supported in the past, including several candidates openly endorsing a gun confiscation program.
While Democrats running for president push to roll back gun rights, however, the far-left field of candidates is pushing everything else on their wish list as a “right” all individuals are entitled to. Of course, none of the “rights” below are constitutionally protected. While they might be convenient and sometimes in need, they are not “rights” that warrant government infringement on the rights of others to secure them.
Beto O’Rourke: Working Close To Home Is a Right
Perhaps the most aggressive candidate against gun rights, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke announced last month that living close to one’s place of employment is a fundamental right.
“Living close to work shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich. It’s a right for everyone,” O’Rourke wrote on Twitter accompanied with a video showing the candidate speaking on the campaign trail.
Living close to work shouldn't be a luxury for the rich. It's a right for everyone. pic.twitter.com/lohRdoFGrH
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 10, 2019
“Here’s a tough thing to talk about, though we must,” O’Rourke said. “Rich people are going to have to allow, or be forced to allow, lower-income people to live near them. … We force lower-income, working Americans to drive one, two, three hours in either direction to get to their jobs, very often minimum wage jobs.”
Basically All Dems: Health Care Is a Right
The most popular chant among Democrats in recent years is the demand for socialized health care. During a presidential race in which policy discussions have been dominated by multiple candidates’ support for “Medicare for All,” claims that health care is a right have been repeated by nearly every major presidential contender.
“We will finally make sure that every American has health care as a human right, not a privilege,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders declared at the last primary debate.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren even gave her health care plan the headline, “Health Care Is A Basic Human Right.”
Former vice president Joe Biden’s health-care plan pledges to secure health care for all Americans as a “right.” “The Biden Plan will make health care a right,” the plan states.
Women Have The Right to Abortion
Every major candidate who has entered the contest for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination has voiced his or her support for abortion, with nearly each candidate expressing support for the procedure as a “right.”
Warren wants to codify the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade into federal statute declaring access to abortion a right. When discussing the issue, Warren along with every other Democrat frames the conversation surrounding abortion as involving “reproductive rights.”
Education Is a Right
The most socialist candidates in the race, Warren and Sanders, have each proposed forcing taxpayers to bail out massive amounts of student debt. While other candidates have held back from declaring higher education as a right, Sanders, one of the party’s socialist standard-bearers, has certainly not been shy about asserting that Americans had a right to free college.
“Education must be an economic right for all, not a privilege for the few,” Sanders penned in a Fortune op-ed.
Right to Earn What Makes Them Comfortable
Many Democrats seem to think by virtue of working any job, one has the right to earn wage higher than the economic value one produces.
5 states have now passed legislation increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. I congratulate the Vermont Senate for doing the same.
Let's make sure every worker in Vermont and throughout the country has the right to a living wage. https://t.co/wWAjA9j2Xm
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 27, 2019
Few would argue that those not aligned with the left want to see wages decline. Everyone wants each individual to thrive in a prosperous society where the American dream is flourishing. It’s just that forcing higher wages to meet a certain standard of living that Democrats find reasonable is not a right, and in fact infringes on the rights of others engaging in free enterprise.
A Right to Tampons
Some on the left have even gone as far as to argue everyone has a right to free tampons. Emily Peck, a senior reporter at the Huffington Post, made the argument in a 2016 op-ed.
“For sanitary reasons, we as a society have decided to encourage people to wipe their bottoms,” Peck wrote. “For sexist reasons, we don’t afford that same consideration to girls and women who don’t want to bleed through their clothes and all over the furniture or face health issues from not taking proper care of their periods.”
