The standard for Equality was equality before the law. The idea was that Government could only treat citizens equally and not show preference. That all went down the rabbit hole during the Tammany Hall Irish experience. It has been repeated by every identifiable and sufficiently large minority since. The only defense an individual had against it was to move. Unfortunately, the modern Tammany’s now want their form of government (see Chicago) to rule all of America, thus canceling out the individuals only counter move. Logically, when individuals become cornered the outcome of fight is all that is left. Should proven interesting.
The standard for Equality was equality before the law. The idea was that Government could only treat citizens equally and not show preference. That all went down the rabbit hole during the Tammany Hall Irish experience. It has been repeated by every identifiable and sufficiently large minority since. The only defense an individual had against it was to move. Unfortunately, the modern Tammany’s now want their form of government (see Chicago) to rule all of America, thus canceling out the individuals only counter move. Logically, when individuals become cornered the outcome of fight is all that is left. Should proven interesting.
I don't know about much the Tammany Hall phenomenon. It seems like a manifestation of union tyranny with resultant mafia crime and then additional gov't tyranny. The historical pivot point for (social) Equality to defeat (personal) Liberty was the French Revolution in around 1791 and especially by 1793.
Here’s a pretty cool Thomas Nast cartoon of the Tammany Hall tiger eating Liberty!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nast-Tammany.jpg
