Liberty And Justice For All ?

On this Fourth of July weekend, I thought this Rasmussen Poll was interesting. They asked Americans if they thought the last line of the Pledge of Allegiance was true -- that this country really had liberty and justice for all of its citizens. An amazingly high percentage (46%) said they thought it was true.

I have to wonder just what cave that 46% have been living in. Do they really think that women are equal in liberty to men in this country, and that minorities and the LGBT community are not discriminated against? I wish that was true, but any honest person would have to admit that it's not. We have made a lot of progress, but there's still a long way to go.

And the justice system still has large inequalities. Ordinary people do not get the same quality of justice as celebrities do. The poor do not get near the same quality of justice that the rich receive. And minorities are not treated equally to whites in our justice system. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, those are just facts.

Now I'm not saying we are the worst country in the world. Americans are better off than the citizens of most of the world's countries when it comes to liberty and justice. But we still have a long way to go to fulfill the promise contained in our Pledge and our Constitution -- and denying that will not get us there.

This Rasmussen Poll was done on June 29th and 30th of a random national sample of 1,000 American adults, and has a margin of error of about 3 points.