American Thinker by M. E. Boyd 7/4/2021
Recently, during a naturalization ceremony, Joe Biden stated a very troubling idea. He said that America is founded on an idea -- an idea, moreover, that we've invariably failed to live up to). As is so often the case with Biden, he's wrong. America is not about “an idea.” America is about an enduring truth. This truth is the basis of our Rule of Law, and our Rule of Law, in turn, is the foundation of our social order.
Biden made it clear that he was talking about the statement in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. The problem is that America is not about an idea, and all men are not created equal if equal means, as Biden seems to believe, sameness.
What Thomas Jefferson meant by the phrase “all men are created equal” is that no person is of noble birth. Article I, Sections 9 and 10 forbid the federal government or any state government from granting titles of nobility.
When it comes to our United States Constitution, equality involves due process under the Rule of Law. Each person is equally due a certain established process relative to government power, and if people are entitled to certain rights and privileges, we all possess them equally. Equality and equity in the context of one’s relationship to government are best understood as a type of fairness of procedure. There is no such thing as equal outcome.
What, then, if not an idea is America about? The Founders knew the answer to that.
America is about an enduring truth. That truth, that self-evident actuality, is that there is a Creator or God from whom our natural rights derive, and to whom human beings owe a duty. This is the starting point for our Rule of Law along with the understanding that human nature, if left to its own devices, tends toward the negative.
More:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/07/when_it_comes_to_america_joe_biden_gets_it_wrong.html
