Americans do not believe egalitarianism to be a menace. We consider it to be one of the ideal pillars of a just society.
I believe that what you meant to say is that you consider egalitarianism to be an "ideal pillar" of a "just society." (I wouldn't assert that you're alone in that impression, but the suggestion that such even approaches a majority opinion is ridiculous indeed.)
The people of the former Soviet Union and its satellite states - a number of whom I'm privileged to work with and with whom I've discussed these topics at length - would tend to disagree with you; strongly, in several cases. In a more immediate sense, though, no serious (alt, adult) reading of either the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or the Articles of Confederation results in the impression that America was founded with anything but freedom and individualism in mind.
Groups that oppose progressive taxation, affirmative action, public education, and other such collectivist measures are growing. Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and conservatives of all stripes - yes, regrettably, even neoconservatives - are gaining ground: freedom, albeit coming in a number of interpretive shades, is on the march.
We fought an extremely bloody civil war over th[e] principle [of egalitarianism].
That is, like most of your scholarship - and I confess to be using that term quite liberally - is so wrong as to be laughable at the onset; however, inasmuch as it is laughable, it is in keeping with the highest standard of hopeful, revisionist nonsense.
"...My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."
-The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388.
The Civil War had nothing to do with egalitarianism; King Lincoln said as much. Instead, the causative factor found its root in the Constitutional concept of state rights: primarily where the right to secede was concerned, and secondarily with respect to slavery and taxation.
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