The more laws you have, the less rights you can have. And the more rights you have, the less laws you can have.

We hear pundits, politicians, and even members of the press frequently say, “This is a nation of laws, after all...” That may or may not be true, but I don’t believe it should be. I’ll explain:

Laws and rights (as in freedoms or liberty) are inversely proportional, which means the more rights we have, the less laws we can have, and the more laws we have, the less rights we have.

Don’t worry, I’m not an anarchist. I support laws as long as the laws are necessary for public safety and impact the liberty of said public as little as possible. But it’s important that we understand the relationship between laws and freedom/liberty/rights. We’re not supposed to be a “nation of laws.” We’re supposed to be a “nation of rights.” As it says in our National Anthem, “o’er the land of the free...” Or in our Pledge of Allegiance, where it says, “with liberty and justice for all.” I mean, we all use the phrase, “it’s a free country,” all the time, don’t we?

We can’t be “a nation of laws” and “a free country” at the same time. They are opposite concepts. Our Constitution and its Bill of Rights are powerless to help us if we don’t stand up for them. It’s not the Constitution that protects the people, it’s the people who must protect the Constitution. That’s our job.

We live in a country where businesses are regulated too little, and people are regulated too much. I believe we need to reverse that.