It is impossible to understand America without reference to our Declaration and its bold proclamation that all Americans — in fact, all people — are “endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” To borrow from Henry Olsen: It is impossible to separate the American project from the Declaration, just as it is impossible to understand Christianity apart from the commotion in Palestine circa a.d. 33, the crucifixion of a rebel rabbi from Nazareth.
Every major domestic political debate since our Founding has swirled around this proposition and the promise it contains. What does it mean to possess rights? Who possesses them? What is the “pursuit of happiness” made of? Unfortunately, in recent years, we have succumbed to what is really a perennial temptation: the belief that the pursuit of happiness, enabled by our natural rights, is defined entirely by choice. The more choice, the more freedom, and the more happiness — or so the logic goes. But our contemporary experience seems to contradict this theory.
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