The error in this is the idea that laws are valid, indeed beyond reproach, when they emerge from democratic processes and a marketplace of ideas. But everyone’s having had a “voice” in lawmaking does not guarantee good law. Majorities sometimes make laws that deny basic and important freedoms, and American history is replete with examples of this point.
What Kinsley refers to as the Church’s “complaining” is, more realistically, the Church’s contemporary witness to the widening failure, including on the part of the U.S. Supreme Court, to require or even allow law to be based on adequate moral reasoning and respect for religious views.
One reason for American stability is that at one time there were limits beyond which, the concept of limited government powers, prohibited government from going.
With the liberal/progressive concept of a living/plastic Constitution the restraints on Government action is being stripped away. Where in the past it didn’t matter if the wrong person was elected, because his power was limited, we no longer have that protection. Thus it becomes imperative that your man be elected. This raises the consequences for loosing and make winning by whatever means possible desirable. It also means that opposition by any means possible is desirable too.