Even the meager social interest which Jefferson concealed under cover of his demand for equal rights could not be promoted without some effective organ of social responsibility; and the Democrats of to-day are obliged, as we have seen, to invoke the action of the central government to destroy those economic discriminations which its former inaction had encouraged.

But even so the traditional democracy still retains its dislike of centralized and socialized responsibility.

It consents to use the machinery of the government only for a negative or destructive object.
Such must always be the case as long as it remains true to its fundamental principle.

That principle defines the social interest merely in the terms of an indiscriminate individualism--which is the one kind of individualism murderous to both the essential individual and the essential social interest.
The net result has been that wherever the attempt to discriminate in favor of the average or indiscriminate individual has succeeded, it has succeeded at the expense of individual liberty, efficiency, and distinction; but it has more often failed than succeeded.

Whenever the exceptional individual has been given any genuine liberty, he has inevitably conquered.