This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The dignity of the individual and the role of government reserved to protecting individual rights is what makes the United States

exceptional.

So says Ed Crane, founder and president of the Cato Institute.

He spoke at the Cato Institute City Seminar held in Naples, Florida, February 9th.

In a civil society, the voluntary sector, you make the decisions about your life, how you spend your money, where your kids go to school,

how you save for retirement, and so forth.

And the political society, somebody else makes those choices. Egypt is a political society, for instance.

We've got too much of it in this country.

Because I think the essence of America

is a respect for the dignity of the individual.

And it's right there in the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson said that we find there are certain unalienable rights and that among them are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It's a cliche today, that phrase, but it's truly a radical statement, a huge break from the old world where the individual simply didn't count for much,

cannon fodder for wars between inbred cousins. But now with the declaration we're saying, no, we're

going to have a government whose sole purpose is to protect us from foreign

attack to adjudicate disputes, to protect private property,

and pretty much otherwise leave us alone.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the essence of American exceptionalism.

Drives me nuts when Obama goes around and saying, yeah, Americans exceptional, but so is Spain,

so is Germany.

...