The backbone of the American way of life that numerous generations have learned to cultivate and love is based on the principle that no matter your height, no matter your beliefs, no whatever your position, everyone is equal and possess the same abilities and rights as that of their neighbor. No man is far superior to another and everyone has the freedom to aspire to their own goals and projects. Many, like me, believe and support that equality and freedom are vital characteristics of a sustainable democracy. But how strong the two characteristics are together is where the doubt arises. Alexis de Tocqueville believed that freedom and equality would always cause tension between the two, never allowing each to reach its full capabilities. This was the main reason for Tocqueville's problems with democracy, and through his book I can agree with his concerns about the two in tension. As this country develops, equality and freedom will never coexist. However, in the United States there is a more successful democracy because of inequality and the fight for justice and freedom, if we could still call it a democracy. When many of us think about equality, we tend to describe it in terms of wealth and finance. This would be labeled socioeconomic equality where every citizen has the same income and can use that income as they choose. When we look at equality in this perspective, we see it as a communist society like the Russian one, which is the basic example of how equality and freedom cannot coexist. Their society, in terms of socioeconomic standards, is as equal as possible, however citizens are stripped of any freedom in this system and the government reigns supreme, made up of... middle of paper... society. , like ours, and this freedom gives people the right to be unequal. The government we adhere to, which was once actually a democracy in the times studied by Tocqueville, has now transformed into a representative republic, venturing onto the scale of an Oligopoly. Our government gives us every opportunity to be equal, under the law. It provides education systems, benefactor systems, poverty systems that all try to make us somehow equal to our neighbor. Yet the nature of man and the society that has developed here will never allow all people to be equal. Justice, not equality, is what should hold our country together, not to be equal in wealth or class, but to have the moral ethics and reasoning that justice provides. Works Cited • Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America. Trans. George Lawrence. New York: Harper and Row. 2006. Print.