Liberty Over Equality

[Martin Hash]

Nothing defines the difference between Liberals and Progressives more than the simple ordering of priorities: Liberals believe that liberty (personal freedom, individual rights) is the most important ingredient of governance, while Progressives choose equality. The U.S. Constitution is the only set of restrictions that both sides agree to honor, so each looks toward it to justify their belief. Liberals point to the guarantee of “life, liberty, and property,” explicitly mentioned in the 5th and 14th Amendments, as well as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. Progressives rest their argument on “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, plus an assumed adherence to religious writings, or the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

Not only is the “all men are created equal” argument not in the Constitution, it must be interpreted for its time, and means that Americans do not honor a class system: people are not born lords or serfs – all men are created equal. The statement does not support an underlying group-over-individual socialist philosophy. As for a Progressive’s second argument: the reliance on any universal moral underpinning is gratuitous because the 1st Amendment guarantees “freedom of religion” which includes freedom from religion.

There is simply no support for Progressive arguments, and in fact, the Marxist faction of progressivism actually repudiates the Constitution as “written by and for white men.” For them, revolution is the only answer. Liberals are not “leftists” – Progressives are.