The United States of America was a unique effort, placing the natural rights of human beings at the center and beyond reach of the collective authority. The moment we started defining rights as things which can be given by the power of the state, we began coercing and imposing actions on members of society.
Nothing that we are being compelled to do today violates the primitives of the rights, implied and expressed, in the USofA "unique effort", to use your language. If you disagree, provide some examples for discussion.
Al The basic principle has been altered over time placing individual human beings in a subordinate role to the social authority of government, and forced into a situation where the products of their efforts will be taken for distribution as others see fit. The natural rights of individuals involve the right of individuals to act freely within society. When natural individual rights were protected, the social authority was held to a mandate to protect those rights and never to infringe upon them. That protection is long lost.
The rights of one person to use available resources to pursue goals, impose no obligations on other persons. Self-evident rights are recognized as the natural condition of being human. They need no social engineering in order for them to remain true and inalienable by nature.
The meaning of the word 'rights' in our society, however, has changed. We now have socially derived rights which are under the direction and control of an increasingly corrupt government. Modern 'rights' are also understood as entitlements to employment, food, clothing, leisure activity, home ownership, medical care, formal education, protection, and welfare services subject to the production of wealth buy some, which may be taken for provision to others by the government and as the government sees fit.
Constitutional rights don't absolve one of duties and responsibilities...
Of course not. Your right to life involves your effort to continue in life and to live well as you determine your own efforts to be in your best interests. It does not involve guarantees from the government that you will remain alive and well due to the provision of government agencies, nor does it impose requirements on others. Why not? Because your right to property means you have the right to use your effort to earn property and to hold it as a possession until you determine what to do with it, and that no one has the right to force you to give it up involuntarily. You may freely trade it or give it away as you see fit. You may speak freely where you have acquired a forum to express yourself without fear of suppression or punitive action by the government and the government has no obligation or authority to be providing platforms for expression.
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