Equality vs. Liberty

            The catchword “equality” is all the rage these days.  Leaders in all domains elbow each other to get to the TV cameras to proclaim the primacy of equality over all other civic virtues.  Pundits, not to be outdone, cheer at our leaders’ singular wisdom.  But how many give serious thought to the cost of this unattainable goal or even to its desirability, given the consequences of efforts to achieve it.

            Take ObamaCare, for instance.  The laughably misnamed Affordable Care Act seeks to provide equal health care for all, but in the process takes away our right to choose the insurance policy we think best suits our needs, or to choose not to have any insurance at all.  As a result, the law has taken away more coverage than it has provided and is poised to fine anyone who refuses to join the ranks.  Furthermore, those who have managed to keep their coverage are faced with much higher costs so that the government can subsidize coverage for the uninsured. 

            What the champions of equality fail to see is that the true cost of mandated coverage, coerced membership, and redistribution policies is the loss of our liberty.

            Is our liberty to be sacrificed on the altar of equality?  Is our freedom so unimportant that it must take a back seat to the equality of results?  Have we not seen enough of this misguided policy in the dumbing down of our schools, in our ever-expanding entitlement programs, in the revision of gender roles in the military, and in the erosion of our 1^st and 2^nd Amendment rights?  And ObamaCare?

            Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous French observer of American mores, warned us about placing equality above freedom.  He said, “…there exists… in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.” 

            Socialism’s goal is equality for all, even if it is at the expense of freedom.  Do we have to become like the Soviet Union for de Tocqueville’s lesson to finally sink in?