Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

I am in shock. OMG. I find myself agreeing with Ted Cruz, Republican, Senator from Texas, in his takedown of Tim Kaine, Democrat, Senator from Virginia.

In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Kaine took issue with the opening statement of Riley Barnes, who has been nominated to serve as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.

Barnes quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio in his opening remarks, telling lawmakers on the panel, “We are a nation founded on a powerful principle, and that powerful principle is that all men are created equal, because our rights come from God our Creator — not from our laws, not from our governments.

Kaine compared that language to the language used by Iran.

“The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator, that’s what the Iranian government believes,” Kaine said. “It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities.

“And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator,” he continued. “So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, statement, Foreign Relations Committee Hearing Sept. 3, 2025

Kaine needs to read a document written by another Virginian. It was a long time ago, but it is still valid today.

“… When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson, delegate, Second Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, approved July 4, 1776.

You can watch the exchange on YouTube here.

You can read the entire Declaration of Independence here.

I need to lie down.

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