In my latest at @nytopinion, I argue that the truculent response to @BetoORourke's mandatory assault weapon buyback proposal betrays a disturbing hostility to democracy on the right.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/opinion/assault-rifle-ban.html …
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This piece is primarily about democracy, not gun control. My claim is that a minority can't simply declare certain questions off the table of democratic deliberation, and try to enforce that declaration with threats.
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I support a legal right to own a gun in self-defense. But the recognition of that right poses real risks to others' safety. I think I'm obliged to persuade my fellow citizens that this is a right we ought to recognize. Trying to bully them into agreement just isn't okay.
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Way too much right-wing discourse is about why it's OK to immunize minority policy preferences from the scrutiny and authority of democratic majorities. It's a rejection of the republican ideal of popular sovereignty, the idea that political authority needs public affirmation.
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Deep and intractable disagreement about the good and the right is a basic condition of political life in a pluralistic society. Democracy is a tool for managing those disagreements to keep them from becoming violent.
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Dogmatic claims about inviolable rights are implicitly claims about the conditions for legitimate political authority and the proper scope of democratic decision-making. But people disagree about rights, and there needs to be space to peacefully negotiate those disagreements.
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Pounding the table and insisting that YOUR list of basic rights, and YOUR opinion about their shape, is definitive, that the conversation is closed, and if majorities try to legislate to the contrary, they'll have to have a conversation with your gun, is dangerously illiberal.
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Were you arguing this when the issue of the day was "gay rights are not up for debates"?
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