Can your government bestow on you freedom?

What is freedom? Barack Obama gave a speech about it the other day to Democrats. GeoffB comments at Protein Wisdom:

During his speech to Democrats on Friday evening, President Obama pointed out that it was the Democrats, not Republicans that should own the word “freedom.”

“As Democrats, we’ve let the other side define the word ‘freedom’ for too long,”
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“Freedom is the peace of mind of knowing that if you got sick, you won’t lose everything,”… “Freedom is the ability to change jobs and start a new business, chase a new idea without fear of losing your health insurance.”
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“Freedom is signing for that new home and knowing it can’t be taken from you because you actually understand what you’re signing,” … “Freedom is getting that new credit card and knowing the stakes and understanding how you’re going to manage it; enrolling in college and knowing what you’ll owe once you graduate.”
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“Freedom is the knowledge that your future in this country is secure; you’re not going to be treated like a second-class person once we fix our broken immigration system. That’s freedom,”
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“Freedom is the ability to go into a store or a restaurant without the fear that you’d be refused service because of who you are or who you love,”
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“So we’re not ceding that word,” Obama said…

Freedom as a “positive right” which government will bestow on you, not that negative one that you have from nature or nature’s god.