"We are watching an ongoing transformation of our political regime, in which sovereignty (that is, the authority to decide) has gradually been relocated from its constitutionally prescribed setting, which granted a presumptive deference to the majority,..."
Oops! Missed the point entirely. As the Declaration of Independence clearly states, sovereignty rightly resides with the individual (there can be no "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" without self-sovereignty), NOT with a tyranny of the majority. Of course Crawford is right to state that government thugs should not try to run our lives, but he fails to grasp the other half of the picture if he thinks "the majority" has a right to.
Excellent.
"We are watching an ongoing transformation of our political regime, in which sovereignty (that is, the authority to decide) has gradually been relocated from its constitutionally prescribed setting, which granted a presumptive deference to the majority,..."
Oops! Missed the point entirely. As the Declaration of Independence clearly states, sovereignty rightly resides with the individual (there can be no "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" without self-sovereignty), NOT with a tyranny of the majority. Of course Crawford is right to state that government thugs should not try to run our lives, but he fails to grasp the other half of the picture if he thinks "the majority" has a right to.
Good catch. Agree.
This is why we should always frame the Declaration as the founding legal document, with the Constitution as important but secondary.