Sunday, November 8, 2009

We The People Hold These Truths

Quick - name the document from whence this cometh:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

The opening lines of the Declaration of Independence, right? Schoolkid stuff.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Oh.) does not know that. He stood outside in DC the other day at some sort of teabag grassroots overturn-health care-rally and spouted off those words, aiming for the oratorical flourishes that have so distinguished the congressman from Cincinnati. But he said that he was reading from his pocket copy of the Constitution, pledging to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the pre-amble: 'We hold these truths to be self evident ..."

Oops.

The preamble to the Constitution says :

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel, asked about the mixup, said, "Both texts are vital to the liberty beloved by every American." Hey, what's the diff? Could be salt, could be sugar...could be wrong, could be right?

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