In a recent post I said that if elected president I would support the majority view for social issues. Readers jumped all over that as a recipe for oppressing minorities.
Would that oppression happen?
Most Americans are not gay, but the majority supports gay rights. Most Americans don’t want to kill themselves, but the majority favors legal euthanasia. Most Americans don’t use drugs, but still favor legalizing or decriminalizing drugs. Most Americans are religious, but favor the separation of church and state.
Leading contenders for the job of president of the United States include a woman, an African-American, and a Mormon. It took a few hundred years, but the country has finally wised up to the fact that we’re all minorities in some way or form.
Help me think through this question by giving me some CURRENT examples in which the majority in the United States would suppress a particular minority in some way that is clearly evil.
I’m willing to change my mind on this issue if you have some good examples where majority rule in the modern United States would be evil. Seriously. But the only oppression that comes to mind for me involves one minority in the United States (usually a religious minority) using the government to oppress other minorities (for example gays).
So when would the majority choose to oppress a minority? Exclude in your examples anything involving economics or national defense. Those areas would be guided by experts in my hypothetical administration.