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Dear Editor:
The President of the United States stood in front of Independence Hall Thursday and called for equality and democracy.
His speechwriter ignored their incompatibility with logic and history.
Philosopher Friedrich Hayek pointed out in 1960 that people are different by nature. Increasing equality decreases individual freedom, excellence and achievement. However, he added, freedom does require equality before the law which facilitates inequality. (The Constitution of Liberty)
Thursday the President spoke just a few paces from where, in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had just created.
“A republic, if you can keep it,” he said.
Not a democracy, since none had ever existed that didn’t devolve into mob rule and dictatorship.
Next time he writes a speech for the President, the official scrivener should write “freedom and a republican form of government.”
Bill Shaffer
Carmel