Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts: “The United States in the 1700s was a place that was not divided by class”

JESSE KELLY (HOST): Speaking of success, I mean, let’s fast forward through a couple things. Obviously, the United States of America became an incredible success after we gained our independence. As I said in the opening, though, that is not the norm. Kevin, as you obviously know, revolutions are generally disasters.

Almost every time they’re disasters, it’s not hard to get people angry about the regime and power and toss them out. It’s very difficult to land with something decent on the other side of that, but we did. Why? 

KEVIN ROBERTS (GUEST): Well, I think that’s one of the most fascinating questions, not just in American history, but in all of world history. And as you know, I’ve spent a lot of time studying and teaching that over the last couple of decades.

Ultimately, I’ll focus on three or four. The first was, or is, that the United States in the 1700s was a place that was not divided by class. Obviously, there were a lot of enslaved people, about 20% of the American population. Separate from that huge exception, the United States was a place that was not dictated, it wasn’t divided according to socioeconomic status.