>Principles of "Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood"
But which is the most important? Liberty, equality, or brotherhood? how much liberty would they sacrifice for equality?
A common response is that Liberty is the most important. If they are willing to sacrifice the other two principles for liberty, why then even include them? Individual freedom invariably creates inequality. A government would be forced to sacrifice liberty if they desired equality.
I believe that liberty is the most important. Generally, proponents of liberty seem to connect it with democracy. They forget that most of our liberties have to be protected from democracy. The presumption of innocence and the rule of law exist independently from democracy. Even their precious "human rights" are universal and autocratic. No democracy can overturn the right to life, that is the entire point of human rights. The United States Senate wasn't even directly elected until the 1900s. The founding fathers wanted to create a counterpart to the English House of Lords to protect against "the fury of democracy".