Equality in America has always been a difficult proposition

Equality has always been a frightening concept. In the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson dared to declare that “all men are created equal”, which the Virginia slave owner neither believed nor pretended to believe, at least not beyond rhetoric. . Stanford historian Jack Rakov believes that Jefferson meant the colonist “as a people” with a right to self-government that was equal to the rights of other people. But given the lack of self-government in 1776, even this is a bizarrely detailed outline. Before that rebellion, ‘equality’, however hedged, was a useful rallying cry for Americans who wanted a king who ruled over them from divinely inspired heights, and his soldiers, who exercised proximate control. wanted to remove A decade later, when independence was achieved and the British Raj was overthrown, the statement lost its utility; It found no purchase in the slavery-ridden US Constitution.

Much of American history after this can be seen as a contest between growing demands for equality and strong defenses of hierarchy, including racial ones. A lot of politics these days follows this pattern. ‘Make America Great Again’ often presents itself as a populist movement against the elite: the academics, scientists, culture leaders and condescending educated rich liberals who occupy metropolitan cities and conservative imaginations. But the daily reality of MAGA politics is not an attack on hierarchy, but a defense of it. Its fierce commitments are to the real diffusion of privilege, Caucasians above others, Males above women, Straight above LGBTQ+, Natives above migrants, Rich above poor, Rural above urban, Christian above above others and to elevate the orthodox above all.

Across America, policies that reinforce hierarchies are a Republican signature: work requirements for poor parents with tax cuts for the wealthy; restrictions on abortion that undermine female autonomy; and the frenzied attack on other gender and sexual identities, which is an attempt to disenfranchise a marginalized group from the pursuit of happiness. It is telling that the long-running conservative battle over affirmative action, which ended in the Supreme Court, targeted race-conscious admissions that facilitate minorities to enter specific institutions. Inheritance and donor-driven entourage, which cement the hold of an enduring elite, rarely inspire conservatives in the same way.

Gary Wiles, in his 1992 book, Lincoln at Gettysburg, documents what he calls “the colossal (if gentle) swindle” that Abraham Lincoln accomplished in November 1863 in 272 words. It began with the first sentence of his Gettysburg Address, when he called for America to be a nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Respect for the Founders, the wealthy Caucasian men who propelled the constitutional machine, has always offered a convenient cover in which to perpetuate the brutally hierarchical and racist world in which they thrived. Wills writes, Lincoln “had to hide to protect prejudice and find a backdoor to compromise with radicals.” This explains the utility of the Proclamation of 1776 for Lincoln, at the level of strategy. He was a respectable anti-document. In common belief the monarchy and thus cannot be challenged. But because it blamed King George III on equality, “it committed Americans to claims even more contradictory to slavery than to kingship….” At Gettysburg, Lincoln laid the groundwork for a post-Civil War era when the ideals of liberty would challenge long-standing prejudices. That project failed. Instead, a vicious backlash delayed the introduction of equality by a century.

However, Lincoln was mostly successful in changing the meaning of ‘equality’ in the Declaration, starting a moral battle that continues. Many Americans now regard “all men are created equal” as a quintessential American fact.

But if all are created equal, why are some born in abject privation while others enjoy unlimited privilege? Who should give up and who should get privileges in service for equality? That’s what affirmative action was about and that’s what the court’s decision was about. Indeed, the prerogative remains the subject of American politics in 2023. The dead hand of reaction has not yet been raised. The demand for equality was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, the Slave-holder’s Proclamation of 1776, redrafted by the Great Emancipator, still provided freedom from the hardships of the past.

The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy.

UPDATE: July 03, 2023, 11:28 PM IST