What do you think is the most important basic right you feel our government should allow citizens to have?

I don't think our government, any government, should "allow" us to have any rights. They're our rights, not theirs to give. And I think they should keep their hands off of all of them. Sadly, there are many, possibly now half of Americans, who are ready to surrender their rights in exchange for freedom from the responsibility of having rights.

Your question is really off kilter. All ten of the bill of rights are there to prevent the government from becoming tyrannical and abusive. Those rights are GOD GIVEN RIGHTS, as in "endowed by our creator....among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

When the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they had fought the Revolutionary War against King George of England and his government. They wanted to codify those rights and limit what government can do in our lives. The wanted to establish a government with a series of "checks and balances" to help limit government while protecting those God Given Rights. They knew all too well those rights would be "lost" only because we as a people became complacent and allowed them to erode away.

As responsible citizens (as opposed to illegal aliens) have specified and implied duties and responsibilities. First and foremost of those duties is to protect the legacy handed down to us from the founders and every generation in between. We have to ensure the government "works for us" and not the other way around. There is great freedom to be found in how our government has been established. However, there are those who want to "fundamentally change" America in spite of over 200 years of successful governance.

No, we are not a perfact nation and people. We are evolving towards the ideals spelled out in our founding documents. Yes, there was some things we as a people had to change along the way, and often we did to the better. But unfortunately "We The People" have gotten lazy, uninformed and allowed the government to encroach on our rights and becoming ever more intrusive in our lives.

So in spite of what the left, the liberals and much of the Democrat Party leadership would have you believe, America continues to be a force of good in the world. It was build on some sound principles and values. SO I THINK YOU HAVE TO REFOCUS YOUR QUESTION.

Our rights are unalienable which means they do not come from the government. Governments are put in place to secure them, not grant them. From the Declaration of Independence:


'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..."