Communism rests on an idealistic dream: that we can once and for all abolish the exploitation upon which all modern societies have been based. But bourgeois capitalist ideology (like every ideology) also rests on idealistic dreams 1/x

One example is equality before the law. This is a worthwhile principle, one that socialists share. The problem is that bourgeois ideologists do not recognize that it is in fact an idealist dream that, like communism, has never before existed in the history of modern societies

The western system of law has two basic historical sources, Roman law, and the feudal period that directly preceded capitalism

Neither of these societies even had the aspiration that all should be equal before the law; nobles and commoners, slaves and masters, equal?! This was not the aspiration.

To the extent that there was equality before the law, it meant within each class, and was mostly geared toward the ruling classes. Feudal lords demanded equal treatment within their class, not between themselves and commoners

The bourgeois revolutions beginning in the late 18th c. (the French and American Revolutions, the Revolutions of 1848, etc.) made the extension of equal rights a key idea, gaining support from the rising merchant and proletariat classes, as well as from the peasantry

These ideas were written into many constitutions, and now are widespread among constitutional democracies

What continuously undermines the principle of equality before the law is the inequalities of wealth, power, and influence which are generated by capitalism, and this is well-understood in the US

Will you really get the same defense against a criminal charge if you use a court-appointed lawyer or a top private law firm? When was the last time you saw a white millionaire gunned down by police? To even ask these questions is to reveal one’s naivete

By the way, a good book which details the class-based inequalities of the US legal system is https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Richer-Poor-Prison-10th/dp/0205137725

What is dishonest about bourgeois ideology is that there is no recognition that equality before the law is a principle that is in constant danger of being made into a joke, and must be defended with action, with funding, etc.

The bourgeois ideologists ignore the many ways that the poor exist in a very different legal system than do the rich, telling us that what makes liberal democracies so great is their equality before the law, as if it has been fully achieved

as if the problems of classism and racism (which deeply penetrate the entire system), are small, marginal, and right now being corrected by wise reformers

I would find it more persuasive if bourgeois apologists acknowledged that there is in fact a massive gap between legal equality on paper (which does exist), and legal equality in practice, in actual results

Communists have always acknowledged that the dream of communism (a classless society in which no one gets rich off the labor of others, a stateless society based not on coercion and competition, but instead on mutual support and cooperation) is an ideal

that will take some time to achieve; socialism (sometimes called ‘the lower stages of communism’ in the literature) is designed to take society closer to this worthy aim

No such acknowledgement occurs amidst the bourgeois ideology. By claiming that equality before the law exists, bourgeois apologists cover up and ignore its many faults. Is this because most bourgeois apologists are themselves privileged, or is this willful blindness?

It hardly matters, as its effect is to gaslight those who seek a decent society for all