Bethany Negative Case - Refuting Against Meredith M.

Abraham Lincoln once stated, “Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.” When we have a legitimate government that is determined more by its respect for individual rights our nation will be a free nation and do whatever it pleases. That is why I strongly negate the resolution: “A government’s legitimacy is determined more by its respect for popular sovereignty than individual rights.”

The value that I will be upholding throughout the round is liberty because liberty is being free from control. Liberty is clearly defined by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as: The condition of being free from restriction or control.
I will now move on to the contentions.

Contention 1: Liberty is the key.
Let’s look back to when slavery was legal in America. In the south the majority of the people wanted slaves and that worked out for the slave owners, but what about the slaves? They certainly did not want slavery!
If we listen to the majority of the people there will still be a ton of people out there who oppose to what the majority wants. If we had individual rights we would have equality because everyone will be able to do as they please and not have to be controlled all the time. Today in America we have liberty and we can choose what we want to major in college, and pick what job we want to apply for. With slavery, though, slaves were sold and didn’t have the opportunity of having liberty. The slaves had to travel hundreds of miles north to have liberty. Now people aren’t forced into getting a job and working. They are free to do whatever they want. And there is no rivalry.

Contention 2: Liberty gives us strength.
When building something with a group everyone has ideas. Having liberty allows us to share those ideas and they just might be great ideas to make it better. If we came up with a good idea and the majority likes it there may be some people with a better idea. Liberty gives us the strength to run well as a nation. In America we vote. Politicians have their say then everyone has their opinion of which one is best and they vote for them.

Contention 3: Liberty is valuable.
John McCain once stated, “Our armed forces will fight for peace in Iraq, a peace built on more secure foundations than are found today in the Middle East. Even more important, they will fight for two human conditions of even greater value than peace: liberty and justice.” We know that we are in war protecting our liberty. Liberty is valuable. It makes our nation run well so we are not hearing one opinion and one opinion only. If we allowed another country to run us it will be like slavery. We are forced to do this and that. That is why we need to protect our liberty and realize that liberty is valuable.

Rebuttal: (refuting against Meredith M.)
Now I would like to address my opponent’s case. In my opponent’s first contention she states that ‘Freedom of Speech is an effective ingredient to achieve popular sovereignty’. How is this? We heard her say that the people should have a say in what the government does. What if the people all voice different opinions? There is no way to have them agree on one. The government cannot do hundreds of different things at once for the same purpose.
In her second contention she says that allowing the people to voice their opinions a government can be aware of the will of people and make decisions of which the majority approves. But the majority isn’t right. A few people could put peer pressure on other people to do wrong things. And with this the government will do it because of the majority.

Conclusion:
Liberty allows us to think whatever we want and don’t have to be controlled in what we think. I hope you see why we have to see liberty as valuable. It allows us to be us and not somebody else.
Also popular sovereignty doesn’t exist without individual rights. So why is a legitimate government determined more by its respect for popular sovereignty than individual rights when individual rights are behind it all? Well many people think that if we work in unity everything will run smoother. Which it might, but we wouldn’t have liberty to do whatever we want. We would pretty much be controlled and by my three contentions I hope you see why liberty is the key.

Thank you. I now stand ready for cross examination.

If you have any comments on it...please post them! I think I did better with the Aff. side!

I did too Bethany! The Affirmative was SO much easier! We both did Meridith's Case and we both did unity! Weird...

My case is now updated with a new value (thanks, Christian!) and ready for cross examination!

Nice!