Column By Mike Bibb
“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. It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shi’a law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities. They do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”
— Sen. Tim Kaine (VA-D) remarked during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sep. 3, 2025.
Sometimes, I have to scratch my head and wonder if some of our representatives in Congress are really as stupid as they sound, or are they just poking fun at their own ignorance?
With Virginia’s junior U.S. Senator, Tim Kaine, it isn’t easy to tell.
Apparently, here’s a person who is familiar with our country’s founding documents, has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, and regularly lectures us on his presumed knowledge of matters of national and international importance, yet goes on record as saying that our rights and liberties originate from governments.
So, which is it — stupidity, ignorance, or both? Maybe it’s as simple as Mr. Kaine doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about and is merely rattling on to make our heads hurt.
Even more baffling is how he has been elected to various public offices since 1994. He was even Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in 2016.
Wow, a political brain teaser. Of course, this is the same Democrat campaign that insisted Trump was colluding with Russia to “fix the election.”
Later, proven to be a big lie, but that’s politics.
I believe Sen. Kaine is a lawyer, indicating he’s probably above average in intelligence. Not an uncommon occupation within the chambers of the Capitol. Actually, they’re fairly prevalent.
Having a Juris Doctor Degree, one would naturally assume Kaine must have taken at least one class in Constitutional Law sometime during his collegiate and law school days.
When he did, undoubtedly he came across a line inspired by Thomas Jefferson: “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 . . .”
In case Sen. Kaine has forgotten, these are a few of the very first words penned within the Declaration of Independence. It specifically mentions that an individual’s rights come from a Creator, not from some government decree, concocted by the whims or selfish interests of human pursuits.
Actually, the very following sentence states “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Then, we have the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights, specifically stating what the government can and cannot do to an individual citizen.
Kaine has it backwards; a person’s rights come from a Creator and are protected by a just government. Not the other way around.
A government cannot grant something it doesn’t have. It can only protect that which naturally occurs and has always been.
However, governments can procure something that doesn’t originally belong to them through acquisition, agreement, or conquest.
Now, I really don’t care what Kaine’s opinions and comments are on particular topics or issues. Like anyone else, he certainly has the prerogative to express his views.
That’s the beauty of the 1st Amendment.
He also has the right to be wrong or partially incorrect. Mistakes and errors happen. Primarily, it seems, in a politician’s life.
But when an obvious misstatement is pronounced before an assembly of the nation’s legislators, and that comment is in direct opposition to the words and meaning of one of our premier documents. Sen. Kaine owes us an apology and an acknowledgement that his remarks were a slip of the tongue, not based on reliable evidence.
Kaine may believe our rights are granted by a benevolent government, but testimony and 250 years of written history clearly prove otherwise.
Furthermore, if he really thinks Shi’a law and our Constitutional concepts are basically the same thing, then poor Mr. Kaine might be suffering from more problems than he may imagine.
Unfortunately, there’s always the possibility he’s drifted to the far-left side of the Democrat Party. If that’s the case, no amount of reasoning and logical explanations will be of much help. He’s become mired in falsehoods and deceptions and a political agenda promoting socialist concepts.
The “We hate Trump and wish he would die!” chants seem to be the Dems’ only counterargument. No solutions to the nation’s current difficulties or explanations for why they are losing voter support. It’s always “Trump’s fault!” and the folks are getting a little tired of hearing it.
If this is the situation, little wonder Kaine publicly announced his disbelief in a supreme creator, or recognize he wouldn’t be able to screech this gibberish in an environment void of constitutional protections.
In effect, condemning the very system that allows him the freedom to denounce it.
Try that strategy in the government halls of Beijing, Moscow, Pyongyang, or any other country with a totalitarian government.
Sure, objectors are permitted to protest — for about 13 minutes — or as long as it takes the police to arrive and haul them to the nearest gulag.
Russia often doesn’t even bother locking up its dissenters — it’s much more convenient to toss them out the window of a 24-story building.
