The democracy of France, hampered in its course or abandoned to its lawless passions, has overthrown whatever crossed its path and has shaken all that it has not destroyed. Its empire has not been gradually introduced or peaceably established, but it has constantly advanced in the midst of the disorders and the agitations of a conflict. In the heat of the struggle each partisan is hurried beyond the natural limits of his opinions by the doctrines and the excesses of his opponents, until he loses sight of the end of his exertions, and holds forth in a way which does not correspond to his real sentiments or secret instincts. Hence arises the strange confusion that we are compelled to witness.

I can recall nothing in history more worthy of sorrow and pity than the scenes which are passing before our eyes. It is as if the natural bond that unites the opinions of man to his tastes, and his actions to his principles, was now broken; the harmony that has always been observed between the feelings and the ideas of mankind appears to be dissolved and all the laws of moral analogy to be abolished.

These words were penned by Alexis de Tocqueville. You can feel his contempt for his home country’s loss of principle and, later, you can hear his enthusiastic optimism as he prepares to explore the new American democracy:

I cannot believe that the Creator made man to leave him in an endless struggle with the intellectual wretchedness that surrounds us. God destines a calmer and a more certain future to the communities of Europe. I am ignorant of his designs, but I shall not cease to believe in them because I cannot fathom them, and I had rather mistrust my own capacity than his justice.

There is one country in the world where the great social revolution that I am speaking of seems to have nearly reached its natural limits. It has been effected with ease and simplicity; say rather that this country is reaping the fruits of the democratic revolution which we are undergoing, without having had the revolution itself.

The emigrants who colonized the shores of America in the beginning of the seventeenth century somehow separated the democratic principle from all the principles that it had to contend with in the old communities of Europe, and transplanted it alone to the New World. It has there been able to spread in perfect freedom and peaceably to determine the character of the laws by influencing the manners of the country. . It appears to me beyond a doubt that, sooner or later, we shall arrive, like the Americans, at an almost complete equality of condition. But I do not conclude from this that we shall ever be necessarily led to draw the same political consequences which the Americans have derived from a similar social organization. I am far from supposing that they have chosen the only form of government which a democracy may adopt; but as the generating cause of laws and manners in the two countries is the same, it is of immense interest for us to know what it has produced in each of them.

It is not, then, merely to satisfy a curiosity, however legitimate, that I have examined America; my wish has been to find there instruction by which we may ourselves profit.

It seems that our country–the same of Tocqueville’s optimistic fascination–has lost its way as it undermines the tools of basic harmony at home and abroad. Even those that subscribe to the current incarnation of conservatism that governs our country admit that it is “tough love” that they are prescribing. The well-preened conservative intellectual class yearns for a “return” to rugged American individualism with no understanding of the hardships that are involved in becoming rugged.

Where would Tocqueville look to today to find a government that mitigates the “endless struggle with the intellectual wretchedness that surrounds us?” Where can we, as Americans, find “instruction by which we may ourselves profit” as a country? If I may be so bold, I believe I know the answer. The soul of our democracy is slowly stirring in the net- and grassroots movements inspired by the nihilistic social and foreign policies of this administration. You can look to groups like the Roots Project or the Kos community and find a citizenry of post-revolutionaries akin to those of Tocqueville’s era. I say post-revolutionary because those of us who partake in this movement are seeking to buttress the achievements of our Revolution, stirred by the same great ideals that inspired American militias to form and stand toe-to-toe with the greatest military in the world.

If you pause and compare the underlying inspiration for the netroots movement to that of the Revolution you will find the same set of ideas. It is not arrogant to say so: the writers who penned under the name Publius had rediscovered the ideas of the ancient philosophers as articulated in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Without question, the same ideas fuel the modern day pamphleteers found on Firedoglake and Unclaimed Territory. Again, it is not arrogant to make this claim; it is humbling and inspiring.

If the ghost of Alexis de Tocqueville appeared in my room and asked where he could “find instruction” I would get him a Kos account and introduce him to the Roots Project–it is here that one can find Democracy In America.


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