It's not a legal requirement. It's a moral requirement. It's your country, your state, your city. It's your government. You are legally allowed to shirk some of your duties, although not all of them, but that doesn't make you less of a shirker..
Parenting is similar: there are a lot of ways to be a shitty parent that don't rise to the legal level of neglect.
"Of, by, and for the people" is not subjective. Neither is the people replacing the sovereign. Nor the nature of a community as a collaborative enterprise.
Parenting is similar: there are a lot of ways to be a shitty parent that don't rise to the legal level of neglect.