Rally it up!

I am at the Ted Cruz religious freedom rally, and, as usual at a Republican event, I feel really out of place.

It started with the Von Trapp family, I mean, the Bontrager Family Singers (I counted 10 kids), singing, playing instruments, and endorsing Ted Cruz.

I mean, I like Ted Cruz. He seems genuine where a lot of other people seem like campaign conservatives.

But, I am not a Republican. I don't like having to defend freedom of association under the religious liberty umbrella. And I don't even know if I'd vote for Ted Cruz.

However, I like politics, I'm much closer to Republican than Democrat, religious liberty is important, and it was the right price (free. And Dad bought my dinner, so net gain I'd say).

Also, now I have a small copy of the Constitution with Ted Cruz's face on it and a cheap American flag (courageous conservatives for Cruz). I passed up the Cruz 2016 sticker.

So bring it on.

"Our rights come from God, not from the government." - England

My libertarian self can get on board with that.

Now they're going to show the people who have been hit recently with discrimination lawsuits and fines for refusing service to homosexuals in the context of marriage services.

First off, I think that any private business should be able to discriminate against anybody for any reason. And by "private" I mean not government owned. The Post Office can't discriminate because it's a government monopoly and we have no choice but to use it. I think that if someone started a business, even if it has expanded to the point of public trading, it is still a private business. It is owned by the shareholders, but it isn't (or shouldn't be) a government enforced monopoly. And people can go to another business if they don't like it.

But does that mean that businesses can discriminate against [insert favorite bleeding heart group]? Homosexuals, black people, white people, men, women, people with tattoos, people without blue hair, whoever? Yes. If you built the business, you should be able to choose who it serves. You should have the freedom of association, the freedom of discrimination.

But that's wrong! That's racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.

Then don't go to the business. Write nasty Facebook reviews, convince other people not to go, try and drive them out of business. But don't aggress. Don't call the bully government to force your fight, don't threaten them, their families, whatever. This is a (supposedly) free country. They don't owe you the use of their business. Go somewhere else. Can we agree to disagree? But let the market decide. That's freedom.

Are some people awful and discriminatory? Yup. But not everybody is going to agree with me on a lot of things and I'm not going to go around trying to force right thinking on everyone. As long as they aren't aggressing on me, they can be ignorant. God knows we can't get rid of ignorance.

Just don't bring the bully government to ensure everyone does what you think is right by aggressing on the rights of people. Not "right to cake" and "right not to be discriminated against," but right to life, liberty, and property. Rights to discriminate are under property, if you were wondering. Freedom to use your personal property as you see fit.

That said, religious liberty is important. It's part of our right to liberty. As disturbing as it is that we have forgotten the right of association, what is also disturbing is that the "tolerance" camp is busy trying to enforce against thoughtcrime of what they consider the backwards bigots of Christians. Thoughtcrime isn't a real crime. And they have their crosshairs on Christians. They have decided our point of view is wrong.

Thoughtcrime isn't a crime. Well. It was in 1984 by George Orwell. And Big Brother is watching.

I hate they way they come after Christians, trying to destroy our point of view because they disagree with it. Even if they are right and we are wrong (which I don't agree with), they should not be able to force their views on us.

The America I was raised to believe in doesn't look anything like the America I see now.

"Nothing says tolerance like death threats." - Steve Deace

And it's being enforced by the government. "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." They no longer secure our rights. They violate them. Big Brother is watching.

But the rally is good. I'm enjoying it more than I thought. There is a lot of truth being spoken. People are very enthusiastic. I can't imagine being this enthusiastic for anyone short of Dr. Ron Paul.

Also some protesters outside. I'm not sure what their beef is. And then some protesters inside interrupting. "Citizenship Now!" They were shouted down by chants of "U S A!" as they were escorted out. Ted Cruz thanked them for their speech, but informed them this was not a Town Hall.

All in all, some political fun on a Friday night. Even got some up-and-down standing clapping reps. Newsboys are here. Free concert!

Add pizza and beer and it would have been a real party.