One of my major gripes about modern people's views of the Declaration is that the document has become the "Declaration of all men are created equal."
The focus on this bit of flowery language has overshadowed the actual purpose of the document.
"All men are created equal" seems to be about the only thing most people know about the document, and yet those words could have been left completely out of it without changing it's purpose.
What was its purpose again?
Actually, I have to disagree with you in one way.
I view it as fundamental.
But I agree with you in another way, that it is problematic in that it should have specifically said:
"All Men are created Equal Under the Law
That single oversight has been the flawed intellectual interpretation for many evils we see today, so in a way, I agree with you.
"Under the Law" is clearly what the Founders meant, because only an idiot would make the statement "All men are created equal" when clearly, even to the densest intellect, it is easy to see that all men are NOT created equally.
But in this Republic, we should all be equal in the eyes of the law.
Obviously (and I can see that you recognize that as well) the Left has leveraged that to cause all forms of mischief.