"There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders"
About this Quote
The line’s intent is a warning aimed as much at citizens as at officeholders. Simpson doesn’t let the public hide behind abstraction. Every “step downward” requires tolerance: not only active endorsement, but the more common American failure mode, exhaustion and selective attention. The subtext is that liberty doesn’t vanish in a single dramatic moment; it’s negotiated away in exchange for convenience, security, partisan victory, or the promise that the target is someone else. “American people and their leaders” reads like an indictment of the entire civic ecosystem: media cycles that normalize the unthinkable, institutions that prefer incremental compromises to confrontations, and voters who punish disruption even when disruption is necessary.
Contextually, this fits a late-20th-century political veteran’s skepticism about Washington’s ability to restrain itself - and the public’s tendency to treat constitutional rights as background music until the volume drops. By rejecting the “slippery slope,” Simpson sharpens accountability. If we end up somewhere darker, it won’t be because we fell. It’ll be because we walked.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Chicago Tribune: The New Computer Tattoo (Alan K. Simpson, 1982)
Evidence: There is no 'slippery slope' toward loss of liberties," insists Sen. Alan Simpson (R., Wyo.), author of the latest immigration bill, "only a long staircase where each step downward must be first tolerated by the American people and their leaders." (Unknown; reprinted in Congressional Record, February 8, 1983, House section, p. 1862). The earliest primary-source evidence I found is that William Safire quoted Alan K. Simpson in his article "The New Computer Tattoo," published in the Chicago Tribune on September 14, 1982. That article was later reprinted in the Congressional Record on February 8, 1983. I did not find evidence that Simpson published this wording in a book, speech transcript, or Senate floor statement earlier than September 14, 1982. The quote is often miscopied online as "loss of liberty" instead of "loss of liberties," and sometimes "must first be tolerated" is changed to "must be first tolerated." The Congressional Record reprint strongly suggests the quote was already in circulation from the September 14, 1982 Safire column, but without direct archive access to the Tribune page image, I cannot confirm the original page number. Other candidates (1) The Art of Education (Linda Dobson, 1995) compilation97.7% ... There is no “ slippery slope " toward loss of liberties , only a long staircase where each step downward must fir... |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Simpson, Alan K. (2026, March 15). There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-no-slippery-slope-toward-loss-of-122419/
Chicago Style
Simpson, Alan K. "There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders." FixQuotes. March 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-no-slippery-slope-toward-loss-of-122419/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders." FixQuotes, 15 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-no-slippery-slope-toward-loss-of-122419/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2026.
