Do you or do you not believe in democracy, that is, in majority rule?
If “we the people” do not make the rules, who does make them?
If you do not want to be ruled by the majority, whom do you desire to rule over you, that is, to make laws that you are obligated to follow?
Kendall believed, as I believe, that those who oppose democracy, that is, majority rule, are closer to fascism than supporters of democracy can ever be.
If you read the book more thoroughly you would have discovered that Kendall abandoned his absolute majoritarian position in favor of a Madisonian position.
To implement changes which you regard as desirable, let’s say changes you think ought to be recognized as rights, do you find civil war and domestic intranquility always preferable to waiting for
consensus?
Like Kendall, the Constitutional Convention and the authors of The Federalist opposed a bill of rights, which Madison labeled a parchment barrier which could and would be violated at will. History
has not proved Madison wrong.
Kendall admired Leo Strauss but was not a Straussian. His ideas regarding leadership in a democracy were, for example, completely different.
Far from being a Machiavellian, Kendall believed, as Strauss and most of the Founding Fathers also believed, that human beings had the ability to discern and a duty to implement the good within their
societies.
What’s Israel got to do with anything?
Kendall supported both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Kendall was among the first Americans to sound the alarm against the dangers of the post World War II bureaucratic super-state which is the real source of “perpetual war” and the chief danger to
American civil liberties.
I am not a disciple of Kendall and in fact never heard of him until several years ago.
My purpose in writing about him was to tell the truth about his life and about his ideas. Full stop.
I do find many of his ideas convincing, as you might also do if you were to give them a fair hearing.