In order to have a workable democracy, the rights of the minority must be respected and preserved by a responsible majority. Or, as James Bovard put it, “Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.”
How then does a responsible majority respect the rights of the minority while at the same time exercising the power it has been given? What I learned in 41 years of government service is that the responsible exercise of power is power circumscribed by the basic policies of truth, fairness and respect for the office I held and the system in which I worked.