Did the founders understand that states had the inclination to control people?
They thought they could prevent that with a written piece of paper , though
A fantasy to say the least
All politicians who want to make mandates what citizens must do OR NOT should sign a contract with each individual to do so.
That is usally how Freedom of Association works !
All state-mandated orders are state mandates on the citizen
That's why REAL DEMORCRACY requires approval of the mandates by the citizens themselves
Not just democracy by the people who made them
The "new" (borrowed from democrats) Republican view that a person's right can be limited by the state for simply not being a citizen of that state is garbage.
It screams for the view that rights are created by and for the state
These fake libertarians like Nick Gillespie and reason, who falsely claim state ownership can substitute AS social ownership, allows them to claim socialism as a form of state control