A Tyranny of One

The fundamentals of a good democracy are majority rule with minority rights. We seem to have more situations in everyday life where it’s minority rule and no majority rights.

Two recent stories highlight this trend. Nike only considered one voice in its decision to drop the shoes with the Betsy Ross flag. The thousands of people that might want a pair weren’t heard from. One person’s dislike of police overrode their right to be in a Starbucks. We have seen one or two atheists get their way despite the objection of thousands. If high school girls don’t want to shower with a biological boy, their feelings are ignored.

I believe there are two reasons for this trend. As a nation, we have become hypersensitive about offending anyone. Several terrorist attacks might have been prevented if people had reported suspicious activity. They were afraid they would be considered anti-Muslim.

We seem to have developed a hierarchy of rights. A person gets “rights points” if they are not white, male, straight, Christian or conservative. Our goal as a society should be that everyone is treated fairly regardless of what demographic group they belong to.
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I’m pretty far down the totem pole in rights points. Being over sixty-five or handicapped doesn’t count for much. I do have an ace in the hole. Elizabeth Warren and I are roughly the same percentage Native American.
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