It's not every day I get to quote a moral/political philosopher I know more than the tiniest bit about. But when the cali court's reaffirmation of prop. 8 came down today, I was reminded of something my philosophy prof dad taught me based on the work of Rawls (John, not Lou, although Lou was indeed a wise [and sexy] man in his own right):
That is to say, majority vote plainly does not work justly in determining and enforcing the rights of minority groups. Majoirty votes on issues such as gay marriage lead to democracy at its ugliest. It's the difference between a just democratic society and a purely populist one – and it's a big big difference.
And even if you are a pure populist, as "rossl" put it today on Daily Kos, "8.5 percentage points less than a majority of registered voters passed Prop 8, a constitutional amendmnet."
