Noted non-gay heterosexual who is 100% hot for the ladies Dennis Prager, 2008:
Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.
Thomas Jefferson, 1784:
The foundation on which all our constitution are built is the natural equality of man [...]
Thomas Jefferson, 1809:
The best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights.
Thomas Paine, 1794:
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
Alexis de Tocqueville, (apocryphal?):
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963:
I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream – a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.
Abraham Lincoln, 1863:
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Samuel Adams, 1776:
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?
Albert Einstein, 1933:
As long as I have any choice, I will stay only in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.
Whatever, those guys were probably totally gay. But what about Dennis’ favorite equality-eschewing document, the very unEuropean Declaration of Independence, 1776?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Huh. Guess he musta skimmed over that part.
October 29, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Equality is a value of the left, and not of the right. It’s time to agree with this guy.
October 29, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Shorter Prager, quoting from the original Orwell: “some animals are more equal than others.”
October 29, 2008 at 5:01 pm
He’s first among dipshits.
October 29, 2008 at 5:08 pm
All the Editors’ fancy facts only serve to prove my central point that fascism has very deep roots in America.
The thing that keeps me optimistic that I’ll be entertained after next tuesday is that the 25-percenters don’t think that they’re being wingnutty enough.
October 29, 2008 at 5:56 pm
“Everything should and must be ranked.”
– A mean library lady
See! You just don’t want manke choices about good and evil because you wan’t make evil! Go MCcain-Abel!
October 29, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I like Dennis’ suit.
October 29, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I have to call this among the top 10 photoshops evah.
Cracks me up every time. Use it sparingly!
Say, only when you do a Prager post.
October 29, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Photoshop? I hate to disappoint/scare/amaze you, but I think that’s an actual, unaltered, genuine image.
October 29, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Hows that pledge of allegiance end? “liberty and justice for some.” That is how it goes, Right?
October 29, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Worst
David Byrne costume
ever
October 29, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Well, to give Prager his due, they did say “all men…” and “equality of men” – obviously that leaves off women and non-men males (them thar Queerified folks, in fudie-wingnut). So, for Prager, America should only have white fundamentalist Christian men be considered equal – all others are less.
October 29, 2008 at 11:27 pm
On a similar note… my friends, did you know that McCain will be championing the use of “American” technologies for clean energy, unlike Obama (who’s probably going to use European (!) energy technologies)?
And the fundamentals of the economy are still strong, at least if you look at the economy in an American way.
October 30, 2008 at 3:08 am
Worst
David Byrne costume
I would not even have realised that it was intended to be a David Byrne costume, were it not for the bottle of Robitussin.
October 30, 2008 at 8:49 am
Considering the version of equality that was written in to the Constitution (three-fifths, anyone?), I’d say yeah, the Republicans are much more about protecting that “value system” than the Democrats.
October 30, 2008 at 10:59 pm
A winning GOP ticket in 2012 (well OK one that would sure as hell fire up the base):
PALIN/HANNITY
November 4, 2008 at 8:38 am
[...] way around. We’re still capable of these sorts of distinctions.) A proof perhaps, of the European flavor of modern American liberalism? Or the yahoo factor – the Klan, with its fancy dress and its Wizards and Dragons and so forth [...]