What are my Rights?

What are my "Rights"? I hear this word thrown around so much both in the campaigns and amongst voters. This goes hand in hand with entitlements.

According to Thomas Jefferson;

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774

So according to Jefferson a right should be something derived from the laws of nature, not some gift given to us through campaign promises to win elections.
As our society moves more and more away from the fundamentals of morality, God, religious vigor, and faith we seem to be moving toward a system of wanting more and more of our rights to be bestowed as a gift from our chief magistrate. I wonder why.

This is a Republican and Democrat problem. Bush was responsible for huge amounts of spending and now he has overseen the largest bailout of financial institutions by the federal government in our history. This is not about political parties, this is about a move away from what our founding fathers envisioned. Why is this ok and why do so many seem numb to this movement in our political system? More and more I find myself aligning with the Libertarian party...the more we look to government to take care of problems the more problems seem to arise. I love this clip from 20/20 this week. It says it all.

I spent hours and hours over the weekend pouring over the words of our founders and I was inspired, uplifted and in awe of the great men who were at our helm.
Here are a couple of my favorite quotes.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams, Address to the Military, October 11, 1798

A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.
Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, February 12, 1779

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Archibald Stewart, Dec 23, 1791