Majority Rules Is Still Dictatorship

Today I'm pissed off at the ignorance of humanity.  I have two issues burning in my gut: equal rights, and the meaning of democracy. 

Everyone is happy that Jan Brewer vetoed the Arizona law that would have made it okay for businesses to refuse to serve gay people based on their religious beliefs.  The right claimed they were "protecting religious freedom."  Bullshit.  They were trying to legalize hate and discrimination.

Huffington Post did a great article back in September titled "How to Determine if Your Religious Liberty is Being Threatened.  There's an easy set of questions, found here that makes it very clear that simply because you don't like others getting to live their beliefs isn't a threat to your own religious freedom.  All people have a right to equal protection under the law.  End of discussion.

The other aspect of this whole argument that makes me furious is that when the courts strike down these laws as unconstitutional, people claim that the process is "undemocratic."  Heck, people voted to keep some people from full access to rights so they win, yes?  Governor Rick Perry of Texas today went as far as to say, "Texans spoke loud and clear by overwhelmingly voting to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman in our Constitution, and it is not the role of the federal government to overturn the will of our citizens."  Hmmm, does Governor Perry remember the whole "War Between the States" conflict?  

In a republic, it's not always majority rules.  There are processes in place to protect the minority.  And folks, I hate to break it to you but the US is a republic, not a democracy.  Even conservatives like columnist Anthony Martin get it that a majority rule democracy would be a bad thing.  In addition, the right wing that claims to be following the "intent of the founding fathers" would be dismayed to know that our founding father recognized that the majority is often made up of idiots. In fact, the word "democracy" doesn't show up in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the Untied States.  To quote Martin: 

The founders of our nation held a deep abhorrence for democracy and majority rule. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wrote, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." John Adams predicted, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Our founders intended for us to have a republican form of limited government where the protection of individual God-given rights was the primary job of government.

Now, some would claim that the right of a woman to marry a woman is not a "god-given right."  I would counter that neither is the right to own a semi-automatic weapon.   And it's not just Americans who understand what democracy means (contrary to the picture painted by Fox News).   Alexis de Tocqueville identified this in 1935 when he published his scientific observation of the "New World:" 

"If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach? Men do not change their characters by uniting with one another; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my own part, I cannot believe it; the power to do everything, which I should refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them."Alexis de Tocqueville, "Tyranny of the Majority," Chapter XV, Book 1, Democracy in America

So we shouldn't be voting on who gets to marry any more than we vote on what real American should drive or what color hair is acceptable.  

So Governor Perry, it really doesn't matter if the voters of Texas want to define marriage as one man and one woman.  And it isn't violating anyone's religious liberties that we protect the rights of everyone.

And I won't even get started about those who claim to follow Jesus and the bible while casting stones and judging thy neighbor.  That's a rant for another day.