I saw recently that a senate candidate, in the Democratic party’s primary in California, quoted Reagan on equality. The candidate mentioned that Reagan had once said that equality required not merely formal equality before the law, but that people believed that they were “equal in the eyes of each other.” I could not remember hearing Reagan having said it. I thought I’d search around, and see if I could find if Reagan did say as much, and when.
He did use the expression, in 1992, at the Republican national convention, at which Presdient Bush was nominated to run for re-election against Bill Clinton. Here’s the portion of his address to the delegates in which he uses the expression:
Whether we come from poverty or wealth; whether we are Afro- American or Irish-American; Christian or Jewish, from big cities or small towns, we are all equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans that is not enough — we must be equal in the eyes of each other.
It’s true, as Johnson (speaking in a video I posted on Monday) or King would have known well — that formal equality before the law cannot easily endure without the conviction among people that all are worthy of that equality. Neither status nor position nor expectation changes the truth and necessity of the conviction.
The Democrat who quoted Reagan found Reagan’s expression memorable. It is; having encountered the expression, one is likely to recall it, easily. It’s more than memorable; the religious and philosophical foundation of equality is both a safeguard of a community and an enduring devotion between friends.