As socialists appear to rise in America, attacks on the country’s Founders oddly are accompanied by efforts to co-opt the Revolution and American values. For instance, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has emphasized how the Revolution was a battle against billionaires of the revolutionary period. This distracts from the fundamental point of the Revolution: that the revolutionaries united in skepticism of too much government power, not out of a desire to have a government that steals some of its citizenry’s wealth.

In researching the Founders for the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I encountered a group engaged in very diverse enterprises. There were lawyers, farmers, and merchants. The cause welcomed the wealthy along with others. In the National Archives, where the Declaration is displayed, one exhibit notably draws attention to Charles Carroll, a signatory who the exhibit notes “may have been the wealthiest man in the American colonies.” He supported the Revolution alongside others, like Alexander Hamilton, of very humble beginnings.