"The goal – an affirmation of the highest aspirations of the Declaration of Independence – was to eradicate poverty, inequality, and injustice."
That statement represents what has bifurcated America from our inception. The highest aspirations of the Declaration of Independence NOT to eradicate poverty, inequality, and injustice. One might argue that the eradication of injustice is one of them, but that begs the question, What is justice? It sought as everyone does to escape poverty, but it sought the right to pursue that goal, not to guarantee its accomplishment. Jefferson and most of the founders were well aware that inequality is inevitable to human beings. The sought to eliminate the government's ability to enforce inequality. Ever since then politicians have attempted, successfully, do protect their own superiority over as many as was possible.
We still haven't been able to agree on a definition of justice, nor of wealth, nor of equality. Our founders agreed amongst themselves to compromise on the question of all men, defining slaves as less that fully men--three-fifths of a man specifically. Americans were de facto less than human, to be killed, incarcerated, and otherwise belittled.
"The goal – an affirmation of the highest aspirations of the Declaration of Independence – was to eradicate poverty, inequality, and injustice."
That statement represents what has bifurcated America from our inception. The highest aspirations of the Declaration of Independence NOT to eradicate poverty, inequality, and injustice. One might argue that the eradication of injustice is one of them, but that begs the question, What is justice? It sought as everyone does to escape poverty, but it sought the right to pursue that goal, not to guarantee its accomplishment. Jefferson and most of the founders were well aware that inequality is inevitable to human beings. The sought to eliminate the government's ability to enforce inequality. Ever since then politicians have attempted, successfully, do protect their own superiority over as many as was possible.
We still haven't been able to agree on a definition of justice, nor of wealth, nor of equality. Our founders agreed amongst themselves to compromise on the question of all men, defining slaves as less that fully men--three-fifths of a man specifically. Americans were de facto less than human, to be killed, incarcerated, and otherwise belittled.