[sten]

QED

[Leo Carpathian]

The Creator sent the Satan to test the people of US to see if they can defend and preserve His blessings and right.

[Gaffer]

I’ve long held that our God-given rights to us, documented in the US Constitution were not merely ‘recognized,’ but affirmed.

[Paine in the Neck]

It is this total overthrow of all prior history as regards rights vs. privileges that was uniquely American. This is what I understand American Exceptionalism to be, not the idiotic self esteem issue that Obama seems to think it refers to.

[IronJack]

The Constitution says nothing about the origin of our rights. It is the Declaration of Independence that attributes them to the a divine Creator.

But wherever that origin is specified, it is a certainty that this country was founded on the notion that RIGHTS DO NOT COME FROM GOVERNMENT! Rather, the power of government comes from the consent of the governed. That is the only philosophical bulwark that keeps this government from devolving into just another tyranny.

[KrisKrinkle]

“The US Constitution went further to define liberty and its source. “

What part of the US Constitution does that?

“As such, the founders RECOGNIZED our Rights as preexisting naturally having been bestowed upon us by our Creator.”

Somehow I can’t see that is so for “...the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained...” nor “The right of citizens of the United States to vote”.

“At that point, your Rights have been bestowed and you start working on exercising your first Right

The Right to be born”

Arguably the first right is the right to life. Without life, how can any other right be held? If there is not life in the body of the unborn, wherein does the right to be born reside?

The whole post discusses “rights” without defining the term.

[Secret Agent Man]

the framers mindset is that the constitution is set up to protect and preserve rights people inherently have, that these rights exist outside of government, predate government, preclude government, exist independently of government.

[Political Junkie Too]

Then the question becomes, when do I receive these Rights?

Here's another question: do you lose those rights when you leave the country?

I'm amused when people go to foreign countries and behave as if they still have 1st amendment protections of free speech and a free press. Other countries don't have to recognize our rights on their soil.

I guess you could say that we still have them, but that their protections are unenforceable.

Then the corrolary to this is that citizens of other countries also have these unalienable rights, too, because the Creator didn't endow them to just Americans. Again, protections of these unalienable rights are unenforceable in governments that don't accept the premise.

-PJ