The closest thing to a homegrown religion in America is the belief that “you’re just as good as anyone else, and nobody’s any better than you.”
And no it’s not redundant. The two clauses are distinct dogmas. It’s the standard by which “justice” itself is judged.
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A product of the post-Revolutionary era 1787-1824 that set the stage for Jacksonian democracy. Socially it was an ascendancy of Scots-Irish yeomen artisans, small farmers and “independent” men. Property qualifications for vote fell away, north abolished slavery, 1812 war fever
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My (immigrant) FIL says that socially Americans are “communist.” So, for e.g., in other cultures you’d get treated at the local bakery depending on your status in the community. Here in U.S. you wait in line like everyone else.
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I don't think that's quite right. It's not the communist/socialist form of egalitarianism. Closer to a "sociable libertarian" egalitarianism of the sort Tocqueville observed in Jacksonian America.


