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The Privilege of Freedom

David Todd McCarty
3 min readDec 29, 2020

The difference between a right and a privilge

George Washington waving

There is nothing sacred about the 2nd Amendment, despite cries to the contrary. It was simply one of the first ten add-on’s that a bunch of rich guys found necessary to include in a time where we had no army and everyone had a flintlock rifle for hunting.

Originalists in all other respects ignore the fact that contextually, the framers had no intention of supporting an idea that the people should rise up against them and overthrow the government. Quite clearly the opposite in fact. Their intention was to safeguard and in fact insulate themselves from the people, as they did time and again.

The strange, convoluted reimagining of history to fit a twisted world view today is reflected in the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories where no connection is too far out there and any rationalization is worthy of discussion.

Our form of government was not designed, written or endorsed by God and is just an agreed upon idea for how a people might attempt to govern themselves. The minute we fail to agree on this fundamental concept, it is insolvent.

The greatness of the Constitution has always lied in its ability to change with the times. We ended slavery, eventually, and gave both women and people of color the right to vote. We made…

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David Todd McCarty
David Todd McCarty

Written by David Todd McCarty

A cranky romantic searching for hope and humor. I tell stories. Most of them are true. I’m not at all interested in your outrage, but I do feel your pain.

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