natural rights, meaning all men are innately born with the right to them. John Locke defines life as God given and that all people are God’s property and entitled to life. Locke defines liberty as “not a state of license,” but as a rightful and moral exercise of freedom. He states that liberty does not give man the right to take his own life or hinder the liberty of others. A man cannot harm the health, possessions, or life of another man. Locke lastly defines the natural right to property. Locke defines this principle as more than owning things, but also owning oneself. He also defines property as owning the common, the things citizens labor to have. An example of owning then common Locke gives is, if a man catches a fish in the ocean, cooks it and eats it because he labored for it and it was God given. Jefferson based the definitions of life and liberty off of Locke’s definitions in the Declaration of Independence, but changed property and redefined it as the pursuit of happiness. Jefferson defines the pursuit of happiness as mans right to pursue happiness, but not the right to happiness. The Republican party best follows the definition of life according to the Declaration of Independence with their view on abortion. The big difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party on this issue is the Republican party sees abortion as wrong and the Democratic party does not. The republicans are pro-life and conservative and believe that each human being has the right to live and abortion is equivalent to murder. In 2008, approximately one million, twenty-one thousand abortions took place in the U.S., that’s over one million murders. The Republican Party recognizes that even in the womb the fetus is unique and is a living being with the inalienable right to life and has a creator. The Republican Party as a generalized view believes that human life commences at conception, and therefore has individual and exclusive rights from the mother, which in turn does not give permission to the mother to abort the child. The Democratic Party is the liberal party and is pro-choice in the abortion debate. They believe that being the future mother or it being the women’s body gives her the privilege to make the decision regarding the fetus life. A fair point, but one you never hear is that the government should not try to control what a citizen does with their body, just like it does not tell them what they should eat. Then again, it would be an oxymoron for they do believe in governmental control. The Democratic Party is the party that states that they are the moving forward political party, and they are the ones who manufactured Planned Parenthood, a facility, located across the country, which dedicates their expertise on making a profit on the mistake of, typically, young girls. Planned Parenthood was first opened in 1916 by Margaret Sanger, her sister and a friend. Inauspiciously, she was jailed, but her idea birthed the revelation and a revolution of the movement of women. It gave women the opportunity to fight for not only their body, but for their lives. The Democratic Party, and thus the Federal government have made it very clear that this is an issue worth fighting. Democrats see abortion as a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body neglecting the fetuses right to life. They believe credit the choice of abortion to liberty and since the fetus is inside of the mother she has the liberty to decide what happens. The Republican Party embodies the Declaration of Independence’s absolute right to liberty by their views on gun control. The Republican Party has not only been an advocator of the citizens right to liberty, but also immensely advocates the second amendment. The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The second amendment was is to firstly, defend us from foreign invaders if our army cannot hold them back and it is necessary if a crisis that large ever occurred for American’s to be able to defend there country. Republicans believe right to own a gun is a law-abiding citizens liberty to exercise their freedom to self-defense or to hunt on legal hunting grounds. Republicans do not support guns for hindering the life or liberty of others, but do respect the peoples right to own one. Republicans “oppose federal licensing of law-abiding gun owners & national gun registration as a violation of the Second Amendment and an invasion of privacy of honest citizens.” The Republican Party defends citizen’s Constitutional right and inalienable right to liberty with their political principles on gun control. The Democratic Party’s view on gun control differs from the Republican viewpoint. Democrats believe the right to bear arms should be severely regulated. Some of the regulations they propose are passing a background check, applying for a permit (which includes having to attend a course teaching on how to handle a weapon), and a copy of the citizen’s mental health record. Democrats believe they are still protecting and acknowledging the Second Amendment, but are by having higher gun control restrictions keeping the guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. Democrats believe that strengthening the governments gun control regulations will decrease violence, ignoring that they are infringing on the Declaration of Independence’s inherent right of liberty. The last inalienable right of the Declaration of Independence is the pursuit of happiness. The Republicans best symbolizes this right with their view on taxes. The United States government taxes just about everything, ranging from income taxes to a food taxes to property taxes. The Republican Party believes in only taxing to “raise money for essential functions.” This means that Republican believe that the government should spend the citizens tax money only to enforce contracts maintain basic infrastructure and national security, and protect the citizens against criminals. Thus giving American citizens the best chance to pursue happiness. Republicans do not believe the money they get from taxpayers is theirs, but that it is the taxpayers and that it should be invested in a way that is best for them and benefits their futures the most. They strongly believe in keeping taxes low for all citizens. The Republicans are trying to enforce a tax system to help boost the economy called Tax Relief. This program will reduce the taxes for all businesses primarily small businesses to make it easier for the businesses to grow. If this were to happen it would provide many Americans with jobs. Another thing Republicans do to help Americans easier pursue happiness with their beliefs on taxes is they seek to limit the income tax so citizens can save more money, choose easier what they spend their money on, or invest in something. The Democratic position is not like the Republican Party’s and does not represent the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. Democrats aim to raise taxes for government funding that they believe will turn into businesses. They wish to cut taxes for the middle class and increase them upon the wealthy. The wealthy class is considered the top one percent income earners. Contrary to the Republican Party the Democrats believes that you feed in the money with the poor, so rather than giving taxes breaks to the rich, you offer the poor money to go to school, get out of their situation, find a job and move their family in a better home. Citizens will find that the Democratic Party demands many tax increases especially on people who make more than a million dollars a year, also called the one percent. The common argument regarding tax increases, that rich people never pay taxes and regardless of the number they never lose a dime. And that all it does it put more paper in the system making the revenue of the United States of America augment. The Republican party does not only follow the inalienable rights better as they are defined in the Declaration of Independence, but they also follow them better as God given rights. God is the one who gave people the right to life, liberty, and happiness. The Republican views best coincide with the Biblical views of the inalienable rights stated in the Declaration of Independence. The verse Jeremiah 1:4-5 best amplifies the Lord’s view on abortion. It says “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” This means that the Lord knew everyone before they were born and created him or her each uniquely. Americans are all God’s children and since He knew them before they were born that means taking one of their lives would be murder. Verse Exodus 20:13 says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Therefore the Republican Party and their position against abortion best follow God’s will of life. The next God given right or inalienable that the Republican Party best represents is liberty. Part of the definition of the indisputable right to liberty is that you may not interfere with or hinder the liberty of another person. The Bible verse that demonstrates the respecting of others liberty is Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” The Republicans represent this with their view on again gun control. The Republicans do not allow gun usage for the misconduct or injury of others. The last God given right is the right to the pursuit of happiness.
The Bible verse Ecclesiates 5:19 best demonstrates that God wanted His creations to be happy and pursue it. The verse says, “Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept His work—this is a gift of God.” This verse goes along directly with Thomas Jefferson’s definition of the pursuit of happiness. God gave all humans the ability to be happy, but it is their job to pursue it and achieve it. The Republican principle that best goes along with the Biblical view of the pursuit of happiness is taxes because Republicans do their best to use the taxpayer’s money to benefit them. They also try to take as little from people as they
can. Based on the Declaration of Independence’s and God given inalienable rights, the Republican Party is the true political party of the United States. The Republican Party best simulates the definitions given by John Locke and Thomas Jefferson for the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They demonstrate this by their political standpoints on the controversial issues of abortion, gun control, and taxes.