Conservatives Are Not Alone in Opposing Unchecked Majorities

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Conservatives Are Not Alone in Opposing Unchecked Majorities

Published: Thursday, July 15th, 2021 @ 3:20 am
By: John Locke Foundation ( More Entries )

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Mitch Kokai.

Charles Cooke of National Review Online challenges another canard from the political left.

Jonathan Chait tries once again to cast Rand Paul and Mike Lee's entirely mainstream skepticism toward unchecked majoritarianism as something sinister and unusual. The ideas that Paul and Lee have expressed, Chait writes, are common on the Right, and, indeed, "are not identified solely with the most extreme or Trumpy conservatives," but "have frequently been articulated by conservatives who express deep personal animosity toward Donald Trump and his cultists."
Yeah, they have. And do you know who else is skeptical of unchecked majoritarianism?
Everyone. ...
... How, I wonder, does Chait account for the counter-majoritarian decisions that his own side strongly favors? The anti-abortion laws that Roe v. Wade overturned were not the product of state governments being "destroyed by violent insurrection." They were the product of democracy. The laws that protected traditional marriage were not the product of state governments being "destroyed by violent insurrection." They were the product of democracy - and, in several cases, popular referenda. The laws permitting school prayer were not the product of state governments being "destroyed by violent insurrection." They were the product of democracy.
All of these laws were swept away despite that democracy. Why? Because they were held to be in violation of the Constitution's protection of minority rights. (In my view, these cases were incorrectly decided, but my objection is to the specifics of those cases rather than to the existence of judicial review). If Jonathan Chait were to call up a Democratic senator at random this afternoon and ask whether he thinks that this was a good thing, that Democratic senator would likely end up sounding very much like Rand Paul. I wonder: Is that an indictment of the Democratic party, its voters, and the broader progressive movement? Or does it only work the other way around?