Did Tim Kaine Really Say Our Rights Come From Government?
Sen. Tim Kaine used a nomination hearing to call it “very, very troubling” that Americans believe our rights come from the Creator rather than from government. He even compared that view to Iran’s theocracy. Todd breaks down why this matters: the Declaration says we’re endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights and that governments exist to secure those rights—not invent them. If rights are merely political favors, any 50% + 1 vote can erase them. Todd also walks through the basics of natural rights (think Locke), what “unalienable” means, and why the Founders limited government power in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Plus: why calling God‑given rights “theocracy” is sloppy, how to think about healthcare vs. rights, and why a common moral foundation actually protects pluralism. Stick around for a spirited mini‑sermon, a few zingers, and some practical ways to align your money and purchases with your values.
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Transcript – Did Tim Kaine Really Say Our Rights Come From Government
Todd Huff Show – September 5, 2025
Todd: Attention! You’re listening to the Todd Huff Show, America’s home for conservative, not bitter talk and education. Be advised, the content of this program has been documented to prevent and even cure liberalism, and listening may cause you to lean to the right. And now, coming to you from the FullSuiteWealth.com studios, here’s your conservative—but not bitter—host, Todd Huff. My friends, only a liberal Democrat sitting in the U.S. Senate could hear the phrase our rights come from our Creator and immediately think of an ayatollah.
Todd: This is absolutely unbelievable what happened in the U.S. Senate yesterday. I want to talk about this. I want to talk about other things—which we’ll get to again in the Stack of Stuff today—which you can check out on our website, which, by the way, is being updated, cleaned up, revamped. I think much, much improved as we’re streamlining some things and some other things I want to talk about in the days to come. But my friends, that’s ToddHuffShow.com. So that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning.
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Todd: All right—let’s set the stage for what happened yesterday in the Senate chambers. Well, not in the Senate itself, but in one of the Senate office buildings where they were having a hearing. Tim Kaine—Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate. Leave it to Tim Kaine, leave it to a liberal U.S. senator to find a way to take on both Jefferson and God in one hearing—the writer of the Declaration of Independence and the almighty Creator of the universe Himself. That’s who Tim Kaine decided to take on yesterday, and I want to talk about this idea: where do our rights come from?
Todd: This is critically important, my friends, because I’ve heard this bantered about. I’ve heard rumblings in the media for months—questioning where our rights come from—which, again, as someone who reveres the Constitution and worships the God of the Bible and His holy Word (which is above all else, by the way)… From a secular perspective, the Declaration and the Constitution are the most important and beautiful political documents ever written. So when attention is drawn to these documents, I’m interested. I don’t always care how we get there—as long as we get there and can discuss these very important matters. Not that long ago, no one cared because the media wasn’t out there hyperventilating every five seconds. But Tim Kaine has managed to take on the Creator of the universe and the author of the Declaration in one fell swoop.
Todd: Background: there was a hearing yesterday—September 4th. Tim Kaine was in a Senate committee hearing for the nomination of Riley Barnes. I was going to play the soundbite—had a hiccup with the audio—but here’s the gist. Kaine quotes Barnes’s opening statement: “Our rights come from God, our Creator, not from our laws, not from our government.” And Kaine says he finds that very, very troubling. He emphasizes he’s devout—was a missionary—and still finds it “very, very troubling.”
Todd: Now, I want to talk about this. This is very troubling to Tim Kaine—and to every person on the godless radical Left. And to be clear, I’m not talking about every Democrat or every liberal. I was raised in a union-Democrat household. I wasn’t raised by leftist lunatics. I was raised by conservative Democrats—union Democrats. But what Kaine said here reflects the radical Left—a godless ideology with a morally bankrupt worldview.
Todd: Their ideology is often predicated on the idea there’s no need for a Creator—which is preposterous. There are a few possible explanations for the existence of the universe: it’s an illusion (which still requires a perceiver), it’s eternal, it’s self-created, or it’s created by someone or something eternal—self-existent. The universe didn’t create itself. And science shows it’s moving from order to disorder (the second law of thermodynamics). That aligns with the biblical narrative and leaves us with a Creator—an eternal, self-existent being who was, who is, and who is to come.
Todd: The radical Left’s foundations—Darwinian philosophy, secular humanism—avoid acknowledging a Creator with moral standards who will one day hold us to account. And by the way, we all fail that test. Mini-sermon: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The payment for sin is death. We can pay it ourselves—eternal separation—or we can accept the sacrifice of Jesus, who paid it in our place. God placed our sin on Him, and His righteousness on us. That’s how we can be called righteous—not because we’re morally superior, but because we’ve been declared right in God’s eyes through Christ.
Todd: Back to rights. Because we are created in God’s image, we possess inherent rights. Government’s job is to secure them, not invent them. There’s confusion about what a right is. People say healthcare is a right. Healthcare is good, but a right isn’t something that requires someone else’s labor on demand. I have a right to my thoughts, my beliefs, to protect myself (hello, Second Amendment), to speak my mind, to question authority. I have individual sovereignty. That doesn’t mean there’s no need for government. The Founders brilliantly flipped the script: instead of rulers looking down and granting permissions, We the People wrote the rules for government in the Constitution and gave limited consent.
Todd: We empowered the government to do certain things—no more. The Declaration was phase one; the Constitution phase two (phase three if you count the Articles of Confederation). In the Declaration the Founders pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor for these principles. Rights come from our Creator—they are unalienable. No government can take them away. If rights come from government, a majority can change them. That’s dangerous. Imagine your free speech existing only until 50% + 1 vote says otherwise.
Todd: That’s why we emphasize we’re a constitutional republic. Sure, there are democratic elements—we vote for representatives. But it’s not pure democracy. “Democracy” alone means majorities can trample minorities. The Constitution sets limits on government power; the Bill of Rights protects individuals—even against 100% of voters. If it’s not written in the Constitution, the federal government doesn’t have the power. The Tenth Amendment reserves the rest to the states and the people.
Todd: Governments can abuse power, punish speech, even try to silence you. They can’t erase the fact that you have the right to speak. They can’t rip the image of God out of you. They can cut your tongue, ban your account—doesn’t change that the right exists.
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Todd: Kaine compared Creator-given rights to Iranian theocracy. That’s sloppy. Recognizing a Creator as the source of rights is not establishing a theocracy. You can believe the Creator isn’t the Christian God—that’s your call. But saying rights come from people in a room in D.C.? That makes rights arbitrary. If there’s no moral Law-giver, everything is arbitrary. By what standard is anything a right or wrong?
Todd: Multiculturalism without any common culture is chaos. We don’t need uniformity—we’re different people with different skills and interests—but we need baseline agreement on American ideals: human dignity, limited government, free speech, due process. We used to share that. The Declaration said our rights come from God. Even skeptics among the Founders understood rights weren’t political favors.
Todd: Some accuse Christians of trying to force faith. That’s not how it works. As I’ve heard, “God doesn’t have any grandchildren.” Faith is a personal choice. God doesn’t coerce belief. At the end, every knee will bow as a matter of reality—but forced conversion? Not biblical Christianity. We’re not forcing faith—we’re building on truth. And the truth is: our rights come from our Creator, not from lawmakers writing statutes in Washington, D.C. If politicians created rights, they’d have taxed them by now. (Don’t give them ideas.)
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Todd: Back to the Kaine clip. The notion that Creator-given rights somehow grant people a “right” to abuse others is nonsense. That contradicts what a right is. Rights apply equally—they’re not a license to harm. If someone misunderstands rights, you don’t throw out the idea that rights come from God and hand the definition to politicians. If those people get elected, do they now legislate a “right” to harm? Absurd.
Todd: Without a Creator, Congress deciding rights is arbitrary. With a Creator, there’s a standard that transcends whoever holds power. That protects everyone, including people you disagree with.
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Todd: Bottom line: if rights are left up to people in charge, the whole system unravels in two seconds. Your rights come from God—whether you believe in Him or not. You should appreciate that. My friends, I’ve got to go. Have a wonderful weekend. We’ll see you Monday. SDG.
