[aexchange]

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

A democracy is not a simple "hands for, hands against" system. A primary function of a democracy is to protect the rights of the minority.

The fact that there are more women then men in this country doesn't mean that if a majority of the country voted the affirmative on the question "Should all assets of men be confiscated and redistributed to women?" that enacting the "will of the people" in this case would be furthering American democracy.

In the case of case of rights of gays to be married, the issue is more muddied, but to pretend that "if 51% of the country is against gay marriage then, by gum, democracy demands that gay marriage should be illegal" is clearly overly simplistic.

<<edit: I see that this argument was already made (although not addressed) my bad.>>

well said.