It is certainly the most often used and misused "line" in the entire Book. It also teaches us, BTW, to warn our brothers of their shortcomings, lest their shortcomings be added onto us. If they fail to heed the warning, their shortcomings are their own.
And "having egg on one's face" can hardly be considered a "judgment" anyway.
The principle of reciprocity gave those rights. Blood had to be shed for those rights. It certainly didn't fall from the sky, off the hands of an imaginary being.
That isn't what our founding document declares. Nor does it ask the "principle of reciprocity" to bear witness to it's intentions. Having recognized that those rights are inherently bestowed in all mankind from on high in the DOI, the Constitution then goes on about limiting the amount of those rights being granted to the various governmental bodies.
Blood is not shed for those rights, not according to the documents we stand upon. They are ours as a birthright from God. Blood is shed to keep them.
It is easier to make people value those rights more, if they can be convinced to believe that they have been bestowed by this anthropomorphized supernatural being that the majority had a virtual relationship with, in common, than by the principle of reciprocity which is really the root of it.
A rallying figure, albeit imaginary.