‘Equality’ Isn’t What It Used to Be

It might be the most famous statement in American political history: the idea, as expressed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration’s second sentence, “that all men are created equal.” But how to interpret it has been a debated question among conservatives for decades.

Paleoconservatives and representatives of the “Old Right” were skeptical of the categorical emphasis on equality, while neoconservatives and the West Coast subgroup of Straussians, to varying degrees, embraced Jeffersonian equality. The former, represented by scholars and writers such as Willmoore Kendall, M. E. Bradford, and George Carey, quibbled relentlessly with the latter, represented by Jack Kemp’s “Democratic Equality: A Conservative Idea?” and Harry Jaffa’s seminal Equality as a Conservative Principle.

About the Author

Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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Declaration of Independence

It might be the most famous statement in American political history: the idea, as expressed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration’s second sentence, “that all men are created equal.” But how to interpret it has been a debated question among conservatives for decades.

Paleoconservatives and representatives of the “Old Right” were skeptical of the categorical emphasis on equality, while neoconservatives and the West Coast subgroup of Straussians, to varying degrees, embraced Jeffersonian equality. The former, represented by scholars and writers such as Willmoore Kendall, M. E. Bradford, and George Carey, quibbled relentlessly with the latter, represented by Jack Kemp’s “Democratic Equality: A Conservative Idea?” and Harry Jaffa’s seminal Equality as a Conservative Principle.