Democracy nearly killed Tocqueville before he was even born, but he went on to be its greatest friend.
The Tocqueville family were jailed during the Terror. Alexis’ parents saw their loved ones perish one by one. Two days before they themselves were scheduled for the Guillotine, Robespierre fell and they walked out with their lives. His mother never recovered, his father had a full head of white hair at age 22.
So why did the child of such a family become the greatest friend of democracy in history?
This is the question I posed to a descendant of the Tocqueville family, Alexis d’Hérouville. His answer was that Tocqueville neither blindly loved equality nor democracy but instead saw it as a providential, unstoppable force. The question is not if democracy would spread across the world, but what kind: ones enabling freedom or ones resulting in servitude.
Alexis d’Hérouville sees this question raised again in the crises facing America today. And so, almost 200 years later, he plans to retrace his great ancestor’s journey around America talking to all kinds of people to ensure that freedom and not tyranny triumphs. If you want to support his tour, and his attempt to inquire into the future of democracy, you can make a tax-deductible donation below: