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To: Zanton
"I don't think the elitist and aristocratic Founding Fathers..."

They were aristocratic indeed, but I don't perceive them as being elitist. People throw this word around with incredible ease these days.

"...favored social equality at all. They only wanted political equality"

I meant "social equality" as a term. Political institutions are but one kind of social institutions, and political behavior is but one kind of social behavior.

The main point was that you drown very quickly when speaking in incomplete sentences. Words such as "liberty and "equality" are meaningless in themselves. One should be speaking of equality in terms of a particular parameter.

That is particularly easy to see in the case of physical parameters: you and I may be equal in terms of height and unequal in terms of weight.

Likewise, "social equality" requires further qualification. You apparently meant in terms of "status" or some such thing. It does not really matter: without further qualifications, the statement is ill formed.

8 posted on 07/28/2010 8:22:10 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: TopQuark
I doubt if you and I really disagree. The key point is (social) "equality" has been a disastrous political and social ideal for 220 years now. Everyone needs to reject it in favor of (individual) LIBERTY. The only "equality" worth having is political equality or equality before the law.
11 posted on 07/28/2010 8:31:21 AM PDT by Zanton (a polite & open-minded, but fierce, advocate of classical liberalism & libertarianism)
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