"...certain unalienable rights..."

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." --Abraham Lincoln

George Will has an(other) incredible piece in the latest issue of Newsweek. He uses his space this week to explore the evolution of the assumed "rights" of the citizens in this country. Why is this important? Because this evolution is in lockstep with this nation's steady march away from freedom and towards socialism.

Our Declaration of Independence, whose words were crafted carefully and deliberately, defines our most basic rights:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

It goes on to define the basic (and, as some would argue, the only) function of government: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men..."

So there you have your three rights as a citizen of this country: Your right to your life, your right to your liberty, and your right to pursue happiness for yourself. There are a couple key points to make here about these rights:

1. The Declaration says that they come from the Creator, or God. Now, it does not matter whether you believe in God or not, or whether you belive He exists. The essence of this statement is that these three rights are innate to your existence as a human being. From the moment you come into this world, they are yours.
2. Your personal rights cannot step on, or interfere with, those same rights as others. As Ronald Reagan once famously put it: "I have the right to swing my arm as much as I want, just so long as I stop short of your nose."

In the youth of our nation, the guarantee of these rights were the driving force behind government. People were given the freedom (liberty) to pursue their own ambitions (happiness), to try and succeed, or to try and fail. Many did succeed, and many did fail. But they were grateful for the opportunity to try. It was in this national youth that personal responsibility ruled the day.

These days the number of rights that people believe they own, or are entitled to, has ballooned far beyond those original three. People now believe they have a right to the "American dream," or a right to own a home, or a right to health care, or a right to have a solvent and secure retirement, a right to secure investments. From Mr. Will's column:

At the nation's founding, Americans believed that government exists to protect people in the exercise of their pre-existing "natural" rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...Now Americans believe that government exists to create new rights for them, and to solve their problems...

Indeed, these things they are given, by an ever-growing government that funds them through increasingly burdensome taxation. This is where the line is crossed, and the unraveling of our freedom begins. You see, in order for the government to fund my health care, they have to tax you. This compulsory taxation is in direct conflict with your right to pursue happiness as you see fit, as you now have less means to do so.

These rights that we look to government to supply differ substantially in character from those given in the Declaration. Again, those "unalienable rights" are ours inherently, and cannot be taken from us, regardless of the conditions we live under (the human spirit always longs for freedom). Rights that are supplied to us remain under constant threat of removal. To state it another way, of that which government giveth, government can taketh away. Be careful what you wish for.