Alexis de Tocqueville on Sanders and Socialism
Alexis de Tocqueville is properly credited for getting America insightfully right in his legendary Democracy in America in the 1830s. My goodness, the young Frenchman was brilliantly prescient, but who possibly could have known he also would anticipate, nearing two centuries later, the economic and social aspirations of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar?
“Democracy,” Tocqueville wrote, “extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”
Next: Tocqueville on how the Twins will do this year without Joe Mauer.