You just can't make this stuff up. George W. Bush reportedly wants to start a think tank once he leaves office, dedicated to "the spread of democracy and Alexis de Tocqueville's vision of America as a nation made better by its "associations," or community groups." Sigh. Truth is, I think I'd rather bowl alone than bowl with Bush.
Tocqueville, of course, was concerned about the atomization of American society. Our individualistic strain, while good in moderation, could tear us apart, and associations and community groups were one way to retain protective social links. It's the exact opposite of the vision pushed by Bush's "ownership society," what with its fetishism of individualism and its inherent tendency towards yawning inequality.
Additionally, Tocqueville was writing for a French audience, attempting to explain that the aristocracy would crumble, and hierarchies would weaken, a process that was advancing in the United States. "In an aristocratic family," he wrote, "as in aristocratic society generally, every place is marked. Not only does the father occupy a distinct rank and enjoy immense privileges, but children are not equal to one another. Age and sex irrevocably fix the rank and determine the prerogatives of each child. Democracy overturns or lowers most of these barriers." Well, Bush sure proved that wrong. And he certainly would've threatened Tocqueville's conception of nobles, who he thought "despite the vast distance that separated them from the people, took a benevolent and tranquil interest in their fate, much as the shepherd concerns himself with the fate of his flock. Without regarding the poor as equals, they watched over the destiny of those whose welfare had been entrusted to them by Providence.” That or fleeced them for tax breaks.
