Time to Commemorate Alexis de Tocqueville

By: Ken Abramowitz

The young French liberal lawyer, politician, and author Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859) arrived in the United States in 1831 on a fact-finding mission reviewing the incarceration system. He published the results of his observations on “Democracy in America” in two volumes in 1835 and 1840, respectively. We at Save The West (STW) think it is time to honor Tocqueville by examining a few of his notable observations:

1)Tocqueville: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

STW–We are witnessing huge demand the “free stuff.”

2)Tocqueville: “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.” STW–Socialism is shared poverty.

3)Tocqueville: “Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder the of order.”

STW–Despots use lofty-words to deceive the population.

4)Tocqueville: “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.” STW–Voters and public opinion rectify our problems, but not if freedom of speech is suppressed, as it is now.

5)Tocqueville: “Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.”

STW–People who vote for socialism to seek security do so at the peril of losing their freedom.

6)Tocqueville: “A man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.”

STW–Our new socialist elites are contemptuous of the people.

7)Tocqueville: “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”

STW–Our socialist leadership belittles faith and disregards morality.

8)Tocqueville: “When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”

STW- Tearing down statues removing our past and our ability to learn from our mistakes.

9)Tocqueville: “When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under the blows.”

STW–Today’s media and social media are spreading the leading Party’s disinformation campaigns.

10)Tocqueville: “The religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.”

STW–Only Evangelicals can save Christianity in America.

11)Tocqueville: “An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.”

STW- Our new despots present bad as good and good as bad.

12) Tocqueville: “It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.”

STW–Voters demanding excessive economic security will become dependent on the state.

13)Tocqueville: “When the taste for physical gratifications has grown more rapidly than their education and their experience of free institutions, the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint at the sight of new possessions they are about to obtain.”

STW- This lack of self-restraint makes it easier to bribe the voters with whatever the despots see fit.

14) Tocqueville: “There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.”

STW- Judeo-Christian culture is crucial to the preservation of morality and democracy.

15)Tocqueville: “No sooner does a government attempt to go beyond its political sphere…than it exercises… insupportable tyranny.”

STW: -The new despots want to provide benefits that are not part of the Constitution, causing them to ignore the Constitution.

Tocqueville’s perspicacious observations from 181 years ago are very relevant today. America’s Democracy today is struggling with the same dilemmas it suffered in 1835. Yet, American Democracy prevailed until now. But recent developments highlight the importance of Tocqueville’s insights to protecting America’s Democracy and our liberty.