Tennessee State Rep. Joe Carr is one of this year’s crop of Tea Party candidates set to challenge Republicans in Congress who they deem too moderate – in Carr’s case, Senator Lamar Alexander.
Carr explained his approach to governing in an interview in May with radio host Michael DelGiorno (at that point, Carr was planning to challenge U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais). Carr told DelGiorno that issues like abortion rights and gun rights “really aren’t that difficult” because “for guys like you and I, we understand why the right to an abortion is an abomination, because it’s the principle of life. So, the issue takes care of itself.”
Carr added that the issue of gun rights is also simple because the Bill of Rights just “enumerates the inaliable rights given us by God.”
Earlier this year, Carr sponsored a radical “nullification” bill that would make it a crime to enforce federal gun laws in Tennessee.
Carr: Michael, it’s very, very important we get an understanding of the premise. And here’s the premise: We focus too many times on issues without an understanding of what the principle is that is involved. And my point is this. If you get the principles right, if you understand those first principles, really understand them, and you can understand what they are and why they are, then the issues really aren’t that difficult. They really aren’t. For guys like you and I, we understand why the right to an abortion is an abomination, because it’s the principle of life. So, the issue takes care of itself.
DelGiorno: Guns are a great example, because the second amendment does not come -- our ability, our inalienable right to protect ourselves, our wives, our children, our family and our possessions – it does not come from government! The Second Amendment acknowledges something that already exists. So I don’t care what kind of dilemmas you’re having, unless you’re going to abandon that founding principle, there’s no discussion. Now, I can get into all the policy inconsistencies, I can make a policy argument, quite frankly I can win factually a policy argument. But we shouldn’t even be having the argument, quite frankly.
Carr: Well, the fact of the matter is, is the Bill of Rights enumerates the inalienable rights given us by God. Our rights don’t come from government, they don’t come from parchment, they come from God. All the Bill of Rights does is innumerate those. So you say, ‘Well, where can I find those rights?’ You can find them in the Bill of Rights. But where do they come from? They come from God.
