Radical Egalitarianism Is Un-American

James Fisher

"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery then unequal in freedom." - Alexis De Tocqueville

Equality as our founders meant it is commonly misunderstood and referred to as a quest for social policies.

Reading De Tocqueville's quote here, one can understand why. After all, we would rather be worse off and equal right.

You need to put the quote into context. In their time, people were born Nobel or common and in between. Meaning, you were born with different rules and rights depending on what level of society you were born into.

The American idea was to abolish this system of Nobility. For all men to be equal under the law. Each person granted the equal rights as all others under law.

This did not mean people should not be rich whiles others poor. It had nothing to do with outcomes or wealth. It meant that the rich must abide by the exact same laws as the poor. The poor would be able to operate in the same system as the rich and have no disadvantage under law.

It did not mean if you were born with less that you could take from the rich until you had equal outcomes. Because this would be unequal under law. The rich gets stolen from while poor get to steal. This is not the equality they wanted.

It is important to understand this simple concept. For our American experiment & idea rests on it.