Well, I can tell you that people are NOT interested in doing what the Declaration of Independence instructs us should be done when our government is no longer of, by, and for the people. It is true that our government derives its power from the consent of the governed. And that is the problem--we have consented to be ruled by tyrants. I had someone tell me the other day that the Declaration of Independence was a nice idea, but that is just didn't offer practical advice. What people consider to be "practical" anymore has nothing to do with whether or not they are capable of doing it, and more to do with whether or not it disrupts their comfort or comes at some sacrifice to them to do so.
I think that for us to get to the point of accepting the wisdom put forth in the Declaration of Independence, we first have to be blatantly honest about the present state of things. Many conservatives continue to proclaim that we live under a constitutional republic. But we don't. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? We don't seem to want to admit that the republic that we had is one that we did not keep. And given that we neglected to keep it, it would be foolish of us to continue to look to a form of government which is no longer practiced to reform itself. But that seems to be what we are doing. People have been conditioned to outsource the protection of their freedom to others. When that happens, government is no longer of, by, and for the people. Our constitutional republic now seems to only exist in mythical or fairy tale form. So how do you get people to understand the Declaration of Independence as a practical document when people continue to hold faith that a system of government which no longer exists (in practice) is going to deliver to them a fairytale ending? Because it has to! Because the Constitution says so! That is what they say. But as you have rightly pointed out, our rights are not granted to us by words on a piece of paper, and when we fail to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to protect and defend our rights, it does come at the cost of a loss of freedom. We get what we accept.
Well, I can tell you that people are NOT interested in doing what the Declaration of Independence instructs us should be done when our government is no longer of, by, and for the people. It is true that our government derives its power from the consent of the governed. And that is the problem--we have consented to be ruled by tyrants. I had someone tell me the other day that the Declaration of Independence was a nice idea, but that is just didn't offer practical advice. What people consider to be "practical" anymore has nothing to do with whether or not they are capable of doing it, and more to do with whether or not it disrupts their comfort or comes at some sacrifice to them to do so.
I think that for us to get to the point of accepting the wisdom put forth in the Declaration of Independence, we first have to be blatantly honest about the present state of things. Many conservatives continue to proclaim that we live under a constitutional republic. But we don't. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? We don't seem to want to admit that the republic that we had is one that we did not keep. And given that we neglected to keep it, it would be foolish of us to continue to look to a form of government which is no longer practiced to reform itself. But that seems to be what we are doing. People have been conditioned to outsource the protection of their freedom to others. When that happens, government is no longer of, by, and for the people. Our constitutional republic now seems to only exist in mythical or fairy tale form. So how do you get people to understand the Declaration of Independence as a practical document when people continue to hold faith that a system of government which no longer exists (in practice) is going to deliver to them a fairytale ending? Because it has to! Because the Constitution says so! That is what they say. But as you have rightly pointed out, our rights are not granted to us by words on a piece of paper, and when we fail to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to protect and defend our rights, it does come at the cost of a loss of freedom. We get what we accept.