>Rights should not need to be re-asserted. They're rights.
>
>But nothing created or constructed by man (or woman) can be so perfect. The true test of a system is how it behaves when things go wrong.

The system is failed as our rights have been eliminated. Prior to this country's founding, private property was defined as including one's labor and the fruits of that labor. The Kelo v. New London decision extended the State's power to seize one's private property for the public good. The public good now includes forcibly redistributing that private property to another private owner. We have no private property rights. Without private property, all other rights are meaningless. It was executed by judicial fiat at the Supreme Court level. Where's the check? Where's the balance?

>Does the system contain checks and balances to protect you against the mighty whether it be government or a corporate building a golf course? By the sounds of it, it worked OK for you. That's my point. Things went bad, then the system allowed you to prevail.

I think you missed the end of my anecdote. The challenge never ends. That was my point. We've asserted and re-asserted and defended these rights repeatedly over the decades, yet with each new set of bureaucrats and politicians comes some jackass looking to make a name for himself by achieving his "gotcha" moment. We've been on the receiving end of that incompetence repeatedly because those in power are either too lazy to look up the history in the public record, or simply do not care and attack regardless. Either way it costs us time and money and the outcome is never guaranteed.

>If you are arguing that government should be perfect then there's not much more to be said. If you are arguing that the system of checks and balances is being priced out of reach then IMHO you have a point. Do you have a solution that has a chance of being actioned?

Lesson the power and size of the State. Lesson the tax burden from which they draw their power. Shrink the bureaucracy by eliminating social programs with the precision of a swinging axe. Return the money to the citizenry so that individuals can decide how to spend the fruits of their labor. Simply put, restore our Constitutionally established freedom from the tyranny of State power.