Konsens hat nichts mit Demokratie zu tun

Spiked (London):
It is remarkable how successfully the striving for consensus in Germany has replaced the democratic principle of trying to win popular support for ideas. However, it doesn’t come as a surprise. In order to gain clarity in political debates, you have to be prepared to accept and tolerate dissenting views. To be able to do so, you need to trust yourself and others to be able to win arguments in open debates. And to do that, you have to have arguments and positions. And it is here, in terms of strong arguments and positions that Germany’s political culture is severely lacking. This is why the striving for consensus has nothing in common with a truly democratic political culture, one in which dissenting or controversial views are grasped not as a threat but as a vital intellectual challenge.

Die haben es begriffen.