It was Benjamin Franklin who said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” But if Republican John Kasich had his druthers, he would rewrite this fundamental truth as: “Those who would defend essential Liberty rather than pawning it off for a little temporary Compatibility, need to chill out and get over their convictions.”

That’s according to what he said on Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS when announcing that he would “probably not” sign a religious liberty bill like the one in North Carolina that restricts transgender people from using a restroom that is opposite the gender noted on their birth certificate.

Kasich argued that religious liberty laws are too “contentious” and “polarizing” and makes things more “complicated.” In other words, just comply with the federal government when they force you to do something contradictory to your faith. Channeling his inner Rodney King, Kasich said it’s better that we all get along than protect and defend individual liberty:

“So, everybody needs to take a deep breath [and] respect one another. Why do we have to write a law every time we turn around in this country? Can’t we figure out just how to get along a little bit better and respect one another? I mean, that’s where I think we ought to be. Everybody chill out, get over it if you have a disagreement with somebody.”

Is that how the Left does it, Gov. Kasich? Are they the moral conscience of the nation that exemplifies tolerance? Do they “chill out” and “get over it” when they are faced with an opposing viewpoint? Or are they the ones that are targeting all speech, thought, and religion at every turn, making sure that all surrender to their version of the truth?

Because that’s what it seems to me. They want to dictate what a person’s individual liberties are, actively checking “okay” for the ones they agree with and “rejected” for those they don’t. That’s not the America I want to live in and it’s certainly not the America that Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson were after.

At every turn, these giants among men fought to ensure liberty for all. Kasich is apparently unwilling to do the same, preferring to surrender freedom for peace; two things Franklin would say he doesn’t deserve.

Watch below:

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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