day no. 15,891: the right to be wrong

"'The right divine of kings to govern wrong,' considered as a sneer, really evades all that we mean by 'a right.' To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. What Pope says satirically about a divine right is what we all say quite seriously about a human right. If a man has a right to vote, has he not a right to vote wrong? If a man has a right to choose his wife, has he not a right to choose wrong? I have a right to express the opinion which I am now setting down; but I should hesitate to make the controversial claim that this proves the opinion to be right. Now mediaeval monarchy, though only one aspect of mediaeval rule, was roughly represented in the idea that the ruler had a right to rule as a voter has a right to vote. He might govern wrong, but unless he governed horribly and extravagantly wrong, he retained his position of right; as a private man retains his right to marriage and locomotion unless he goes horribly and extravagantly off his head." -- G.K. Chesterton, A Short History of England

If a man is only allowed to vote for one candidate, it is the same as not being allowed to vote. Having that kind of election is not holding an election at all. The right to vote in that instance is no more a right than the right to life is able to prevent one from death. Asserting that kind of right in that way is the same as not to have it. But the right to vote is the right to vote wrongly as long as you like and the right to life is the right to live as long as you can.

Having a right is having the right to be wrong. If you can't be wrong, you don't have a right. Being wrong is not an argument for withholding a right, it is an argument for having rights to begin with. But, as Chesterton points out, there comes a point if one has been regularly and egregiously wrong that the right to be wrong anymore is removed. You can only be wrong for so long or to such a degree before you terminate your right: either by voting away your ability to vote through stupidity or living your ability to live away through profligacy.

As an aside, the right upholds the right to be wrong by upholding the amendments. The left withholds the right to be wrong by withholding the amendments from those they determine to be wrong. For the conservative, a right includes the ability to be wrong; but for the progressive it cannot tolerate any deviation from their definition of right. That is why they take the liberty of removing yours so seriously. They not only see themselves as having the right to do so, but the obligation. They must limit your liberty in order to preserve the liberty of their choosing. But that kind of liberty, as Chesterton points out, is merely slavery. And slavery is not made any more tolerable for being labelled, "freedom." The freedom of the progressive left is the freedom only to choose their position. You have the right to say that they are right, but not the right to say that they are wrong. This is not a right and that is why they are suspicious of God-given liberties and work so hard to repress, redact, subtract or erase them.