In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson put a comma instead of a period after "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Why does this matter? The comma adds the role of governments to his list of self-evident truths! To wit:
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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
So according to Jefferson, anyone who says government is the problem is opposing people having the rights that only governments can secure. The same goes for Libertarians who think that people can have rights without a government to secure those rights. In both cases, the rights that they prevent government from securing for the people go instead to the rich and to large corporations.
And what does the Tea Party mean when they say they want to "take back America"? They mean they want erase the rights that people have won from the "people like them" who used to control the government. In Louisiana, the Tea Party Senate candidate openly claims that it is fraud for blacks to have legally voted for his opponent, to cite a recent and blatant example.
Jefferson expressed the view of all of the Founding Fathers that it is self-evident that only government can secure these unalienable Rights, and only through the consent of the governed -- ALL of the governed. The continuing attempts by elements throughout the Republican Party to prevent people from voting demonstrate how far they have strayed from the principles of the Founding Fathers whom they claim to revere.
Note: Crashing Vor already diaried this topic, but I want to add my own take on it.