Former Republican Pennsylvania Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum has said that Ohio’s vote to back abortion rights and marijuana legalisation shows that “pure democracies are not the way to run a country”.
The rightwing commentator, who was booted from CNN after making disparaging comments about Native Americans, appeared on the far-right network Newsmax on Tuesday night to take part in its election coverage.
OK, yes pure democracy has problems. There should be some limits on what can be democratically decided. Something like the Athenian process of ostracism probably felt good, but it’s pretty ripe for abuse. Or say, should slavery be put up for a vote? I’d lean towards “no”. But, something like legalizing marijuana seems like a pretty good place for democracy to step in and stop decades of stupid by our politicians.
A major problem with majority rule is the tyranny of the majority.
What happened in Ohio was the majority of voters acting to protect certain minorities. Women who have a need for abortion services are a minority. Marijuana is only illegal so that people in minority demographics can be convicted of felonies and have their voting rights taken away.
so, an example of democracy working how it ideally should, instead of how it could be expected to.
