During a speech at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual gala on Tuesday, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan said that the presidential election in November will come down to “natural rights” versus “government-granted rights.”
Ryan explained that the American people will either accept the idea of natural rights, which “come to us naturally before government, they are ours automatically, or this new idea — the progressive theory — of government granted rights. That the government now gives us new positive rights. It’s an opportunity society versus welfare state. This is a fight we know pretty well where I come from. It’s a fight that’s coming to a crescendo here. It’s a fight where we actually look at whether we believe in the rule of law or the rule of man.”
“One week,” Ryan added, “it’s the war on women, next week it’s going to be something else, and probably the week after that it’s going to be left-handed Irishmen. I’m not going to fall for it because I’m right-handed.”
Videography by Sarah Hofmann