Home Ken's Thoughts Of The Week Time to Commemorate Alexis de Tocqueville – Ken’s Thought of the Week

Time to Commemorate Alexis de Tocqueville – Ken’s Thought of the Week

March 1, 2021

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Threat Analyst Ken Abramowitz is author of “The Multifront War”

Editor: Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, President, American Center for Democracy (ACD)

See the sources for this article and more research in the Additional Reading section.

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 de Tocqueville by examining a few of his notable observations:

1) de 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 the new Administration and Congress promising to hand-out ‘free stuff’.

2) de 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 and misery.

3) de 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) de 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 when freedom of speech is suppressed, as it is now.

5) de 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) de 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 “We the People”.

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

STW: Our socialist leadership belittles faith and disregards morality.

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

STW: Tearing down statues and removing books from libraries cancels our past and our ability to learn from our mistakes.

9) de 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 legacy media and social media are spreading the Democrat Party’s continuous disinformation campaigns.

10) de 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: Christians and Jews must stand firmly together to protect Judeo-Christian values in America.

11) de 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) de 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 be giving up their freedoms and become dependent on the state

13) de 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) de 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, laws, morality, and values are crucial to the preservation of democracy and freedom.

15) de 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 Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and so they choose to ignore and denigrate both.

De Tocqueville’s perspicacious observations from more than 180 years ago are as relevant today as they were when they were written. America’s Democracy is struggling with the same dilemmas in 2021 as it suffered in the 1830s during the early days of the nation. Yet, American Democracy prevailed until now. But recent developments highlight the importance of de Tocqueville’s insights to protecting America’s Democracy and our liberty. We face a clear Constitutional crisis today. The forces of ‘good’ must rise to the occasion and preserve our Constitutional Republic and its freedoms. For more in-depth analysis, you can consult the “The Multifront War“.