By Larry Keane
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) is right.
“Our secret plan for dealing with the Democrats is called ‘Operation: Let them speak.’” Sen. Kenedy told Fox News. “That’s good for our party, but it’s bad for America.”
Sen. Kennedy is always colloquially colorful. He’s blessed with keen observations coupled with sharp wit. Add to that list of attributes his ability to be prescient. Less than two weeks after delivering his biting remarks, gun control advocate and now Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) David Hogg is proving the senator’s plan to be effective.
DNC Vice Chair David Hogg says “Democracy” is responsible for school shootings and the climate crisis. pic.twitter.com/el1YnWvHEf
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 18, 2025
“We go out there, as Democrats, and say democracy is the most important thing. We have to defend democracy,” Hogg told CBS News. “We fail to acknowledge that this generation, democracy is what put us through school shooter drills and school shootings. It’s what put us through the climate crisis and so much more.”
That’s a Harvard University education in action for you. No introspection. No Socratic method of learning that invites critical thinking and delves into underlying beliefs. Hogg’s rote memorization of talking points is revealing. It lays bare his – and that of his political allies’ – contempt for the truth, the actual wheels of democracy in motion and most revealingly those who actually participated in democracy.
David Hogg’s version of democracy is sounding a lot more like dictatorship and less about the voice of the people. It could be dismissed as the rantings of radical gun control outlier, buoyed by Michael Bloomberg’s billions of dollars to foist an agenda that strips law-abiding Americans of their rights. Not any longer since he was elected by the DNC to represent their vision and steer their party’s future.
Like Sen. Kennedy said, it’s good for those who want to run against his platform. It’s also terrible for America.
David Hogg Targets: Democracy
Hogg’s admonition of “democracy” as the cause of school shooter drills and school shootings is a disgusting abrogation of the truth. He should know better. It is the warped and deranged murderers who prey upon the most innocent of American society that brought about these tragedies. Failure to confront that reality is willful and dangerous ignorance.
Hogg would rather blame anyone and everything else – especially those who dare disagree with him – for causing those unspeakable acts – all to advance a hollow political agenda. He’d rather blame the system of government that is predicated upon the people who are governed for having a voice in that government than holding the rotten and twisted criminals who visited unspeakable acts of criminal violence on innocents.
That’s hardly new for Hogg. He’s blamed firearms for criminals’ craven hearts and decision to carry out their heinous crimes. He’s blamed the firearm industry that provides the means for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their loved ones against those who have no respect for life or law. Now, he’s blaming democracy itself because free citizens refuse to kowtow to his disarmament edicts.
His contempt isn’t just for those who disagree with his gun control agenda. He scorns the people who won’t knuckle under to his undemocratic points of view.
Hogg’s revulsion for democracy, the American Republic and the freedoms which it espouses is an admission that he reviles America itself. He – and his party – aren’t seeking to represent the will of the people in their government. They are looking to dictate it.
Two Truths and a Lie
Here’s the truth. Criminals commit crimes, sometimes shockingly evil crimes. Those criminals must be held to account. They are not fit to live in, nor participate in the society in which we live. That’s why the American Republic democratically elects representatives to pass and enforce laws to protect the people they are tasked to govern. That’s the social contract. Government’s first and primary responsibility is to protect the people it governs.
Here’s another truth. Americans’ rights are granted by our Creator – not government. That includes the right to keep and bear arms. Government cannot grant this right. It is a natural right which exists outside of government and cannot be plucked away at the whims those who might wish it to disappear. The Bill of Rights recognizes this.
That pre-existing right to keep and bear arms is the bulwark that hedges against a tyrannical government that cruelly and oppressively rules instead of governs.
Here’s the lie. Hogg, and his fellow antigun zealots steering their political party in un-American directions, jealously guard democracy. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Hogg’s proposal is a Faustian bargain. In the words of Francis Bacon, he would “Cure the disease and kill the patient.”
In other words, Hogg’s definition of democracy would be so much better if “the people” just didn’t have a say. That’s not democracy. That’s tyranny.
It’s also why Sen. Kennedy’s “Operation: let them speak” might be the most democratic idea being bantered about today.
Larry Keane is Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs and General Counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association.
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