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• Monday, November 10, 2008 08:39 PM

  Tyranny of the majority

  What angered me most about the outcome of the California election was that voters were able dramatically and fundamentally to revise the State Constitution by simple majority. That it so unfair! Such a revision to the constitution should require at least a two-thirds majority, not only of the citizenry, but of both houses of state government. Furthermore, this extreme kind of initiative should not have been proposed by the "people" in the first place. The legislators are responsible for making such difficult decisions. That is their job. California is not a "democracy" as many claim. It is a "republic." We are supposed to elect more knowledgeable individuals to take care of issues like this. I'm sure many political scientists would disagree with me, but I don't believe democracy is a form of government. In fact, I don't think there has ever been a true democracy in the history of civilization. Not even in Ancient Greece. Democracy is an ideal, something we should strive for in our republican government. Our goal should be to protect all groups, majorities and minorities, grant them equal rights, let them "pursue happiness."

  The current situation illustrates perfectly that age-old criticism of democracy: "the tyranny of the majority." Don't you all realize that our democracy is essentially flawed? The LGBT community is such a small and vulnerable group. In this case, it was just trampled upon by the stupid and ignorant majority. Stupid and ignorant! But it's not really all their fault. Most of them didn't know any better. A lot of them probably don't understand what "gay rights" are and why gays would want them. That's because they've never really thought about it before...I mean truly and deeply reflected on the subject. Why would they?

  In this case, however, they have made a very terrible mistake. They just wrote discrimination into the constitution. That was very wrong. It has undermined years of civil rights work and I deplore them for it. But I also pity them. It is unfortunate that they were asked to vote about this in the first place.

  Stop the tyranny!

  —Hippocampe Read Hippocampe's other letters
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