Earth to Susan Ladd, part XXVIII

For starters, it’s my own fault—when I see News & Record columnist Susan Ladd’s picture on the N&R’s editorial page, I should just put the paper down and go fold laundry or something. It’s part of a free society–no one is forcing me to read her columns. Still I read, and my blood pressure goes up. But again, it’s my own fault.

Ms. Ladd prides herself an expert on individual rights. Problem is like most liberals, she sees individual rights when there are none (as evidenced by her advocacy for FDR’s ‘second bill of rights’) and wishes to restrict true individual rights that she doesn’t like (such as the Second Amendment.) An example of the former is today’s column on the Trump administration’s rollback of Obamacare requirements that employer-provided health insurance policies cover birth control methods at no cost to women if the employer has a religious or moral objection:

This kind of ruling provides a license to discriminate against pretty much anyone under the cloak of religion.

Because it feeds Trump’s base, you can be sure that the Trump administration will continue expanding this dangerous version of “religious liberty.”

But this is not religious liberty; it is religious tyranny that privileges one person’s belief system over the rights and beliefs of others.

For religious conservatives, this is not about freedom, but about control — control of women, control of sexuality, control of how other Americans choose to live their lives.

Freedom of religion gives us the right to exercise our beliefs. Not the right to impose them on others.

The Trump administration’s action in no way prevents women from seeking birth control on their own (and on their on dime, for that matter) and thus represents no restrictions on individual freedom. Interesting that Ms. Ladd uses the word “tyranny” here, when she and her ilk represent the true tyranny exercising its will on individual freedom in our wonderful country. The fact that they have no clue—to the contrary they believe they are standing up for individual rights—is really, really scary.