The argument over whether "all men are equal," appropriate distribution of wealth, and whether ours should be a government "of, by, and for the people" are as old as our republic but very new at that point. Before the enlightenment in most times and societies that some were born to rule and others to serve was unquestioned.
That belief is so deeply engrained in Christianity and almost all the oldest and most engrained belief systems, as well as arising from conservative personality itself, that it should not be a surprise that probably half of all Americans feel inequality and inability of "the people" to govern are inevitable, right and natural in their "bellies," as W put it.
Why? Sociologists have identified "belief in a just world" as a basic characteristic of conservatives: A world where the patterns of both human nature and God reward superior behaviors and punish inferior behaviors. In their guts, conservatives tend to believe that this natural encouragement of good behavior and sorting out of peoples is endangered by government interventions to help large groups who are not doing well. Modern societal "safety nets" thus created anxiety and eventually strong rejection of government programs -- a reaction that was cleverly fostered by extremely wealthy families who either felt the same way or just felt an unregulated society without collective bargaining and almost no taxes would be very good for them.
A long way of saying that the strong conservatives ascendant on the right have every intention of "reinterpreting" our constitution to make most of the government actions undertaken during the 20th century, including labor laws and regulation of business (which discourage "good" behaviors), unconstitutional.
America as we have always known it and what it is to be an American citizen are at stake.
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