Pensieri di un lunatico minore

Mob rule and the rights of others

Today, Massachussets affirmed gay marriage, for all intents and purposes, by turning aside an attempted referendum on the whole issue. For those who will beat their drums of “but what about public voters? isn’t this a democracy?” I will point two things:

• 90% of Americans opposed interracial marriage when it was legalized by the California Supreme Court in 1948
• 67% opposed interracial marriage in 1967 when the United States Supreme Court overturned all laws on the issue in Loving v. Virginia.

It was not until 24 years after the Supreme Court decision that a majority of Americans agreed that interracial marriage should be allowed. Even today, a terrifying number of people still think it’s wrong. Tyranny of the majority is always wrong, and that is why the United States is a Republic and not a strict direct Democracy.

As difficult as it is to understand, the majority are often wrong, short-sighted and ill-informed. People would like to pretend otherwise, and I would only dream of it being so, but the truth of the matter is that much of people’s beliefs in this Nation are founded on faeries and fantasies. That’s no way to run a country.