J.D. Tuccille: Healthy Defiance Protects Us From the Control Freak Majority
America is an enthusiastically democratic country, if the taste for referenda and recall elections is any indicator. But Americans increasingly demand that majority preferences be enforced in areas of life that were previously left to individual choice. Directly or through elected representatives, voters call on government to abridge civil liberties to combat terrorism, restrict the use of private property so non-owners can enjoy pretty views, order Americans to buckle their seatbelts, and saddle even the smallest businesses with crippling regulations intended to make people healthier, happier, or less inconvenienced. Fortunately, writes J.D. Tuccille, not all of us feel bound to obey the illiberal will of the majority; some "designated decoys" remain wedded to the idea that they have a right to run their own lives no matter what happens at the ballot box.